Law on paper leaks for competitive exams: Fadnavis

MUMBAI: The state government will introduce a law to curb paper leaks for competitive exams, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the state assembly on Monday. He was speaking in reference to competitive exams conducted for recruitment to government jobs.
The Opposition raised this query in the context of complaints in the conduct of exams conducted for the recruitment of revenue officials.
“We are going to introduce a law to curb paper leaks in this assembly. The fact remains that when it came to the exams for the recruitment of talathis, there was no paper leak but there was an incorrect answer that was given which resulted in the candidates being given grace marks,” he said.
He said that the government had managed to complete the recruitment process for over a lakh state government employees with no irregularities being reported within a span of just two years. “Two years ago, we took up the recruitment drive for 75,000 government employees. We have given jobs to 77, 305 applicants and the process is on to provide jobs for another 31,201 applicants,” said Fadnavis.
He accused the Opposition of trying to spread a “fake narrative” about large-scale irregularities in the exams. “The number of recruitments we have achieved in just two years is a record in government recruitment. The Opposition is spreading a fake narrative in order to create unrest,” said Fadnavis.
The issue was raised in the assembly by Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat who said that such paper leaks had demoralised the youth and those responsible should be put behind bars. “The government does not seem willing to take action,” said Thorat.
NCP (Sharad Pawar group) legislator Rajesh Tope said, “There are many vacancies of government staff especially at the zilla parishad level which results in government work not being completed.”
NCP (Sharad Pawar group) MLA Rohit Pawar demanded details on when the government would introduce a law to curb paper leaks. “There have been reports on paper leaks relating to the recruitment in different departments including PWD, irrigation and the talathi (revenue official) exams. An FIR has been registered only in relation to the talathi exam,” he said.