Patna administration offers to facilitate protestors' meeting with BPSC

Patna, Dec 28 (PTI) The Patna district administration on Saturday said it had made an offer to the candidates demanding cancellation of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) examination held on December 13, to facilitate a meeting with it so that they could put forth their grievances.
    The candidates, seeking cancellation of the 70th Integrated Combined Competitive Examination (CCE), 2024, under the BPSC over allegations of question paper leak have been protesting for more than a week.
    Patna District Magistrate (DM) Chandrasekhar Singh said on Saturday that the protesters would be required to nominate five of their representatives for talks after which the BPSC would take a decision "within a reasonable time".
    "The district administration has offered the protesting aspirants to give a list of the representatives (all of them examinees) so that we can facilitate their meeting with the BPSC authorities over the issue," the DM told PTI on Saturday.
    "They can apprise the commission’s officials of their grievances in the meeting. The district administration also assures the protesting aspirants that the commission would take appropriate decisions or a stand within a reasonable time," Singh said.
    The commission is an independent body and it is free to make decisions on its own, he said.
    The BPSC had decided to cancel the preliminary examination held at Bapu Pariksha Parisar centre only due to disruption created by a group of unruly aspirants. The re-examination will be held on January 4 at some other centre in the city.
    The protestors have been sitting on dharna at Gardani Bagh for several days. They contend that cancellation should be ordered across the board since re-examination for just one centre would go against the principle of "level playing field".
    Meanwhile, the Patna Police have issued notices to certain people, associated with coaching institutes, and sought clarification over allegedly instigating the protesting aspirants and delivering provocative speeches while addressing students at Gardani Bagh, the dedicated site for organising protests in the city.
    "Yes, notices have been served to them by the Patna Police in this regard. They have been asked to appear before the police at Gardani Bagh police station today... they need to produce evidence regarding the allegations they levelled against government authorities while addressing protesting aspirants," the DM said.
    "The police have already registered an FIR in this regard," he said.
    The DM, however, refused to divulge the names of those people who have been asked to appear before the police.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)