Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Following the intervention of police, candidates protesting against MPPSC’s decision of fixing state service main exam-2023 “earlier than usual practice” called off their demonstration late on Tuesday night with a 48-hour ultimatum to the Commission.
As the gates of MPPSC were closed and officials were unavailable to receive the memorandum, ACP (Sanyogitaganj) Tushar Singh received the memorandum on behalf of the Commission’s officials. He said that the police would hand over the memorandum to the Commission’s officials on Wednesday.
“With the mediation of police, the MPPSC officials sought time to consider our demand of deferment of the state service main exam-2024. Following their verbal assurance, we called off our protest with 48 48-hour ultimatum to the Commission. If our demand is not met within 48 hours, we will stage an agitation outside MPPSC,” said Akash Pathak, who was leading the protest.
The protest which started at 2 pm on Monday ended only after police threatened to arrest the protestors as they were demonstrating without taking necessary permission for the same. The ACP told the candidates that the police would have no other option but to arrest them if they do not cooperate and call off their protest.
The ACP also talked to MPPSC officials over phone and initiated a back-channel talks between them and the protestors. After that, the candidates called off their stir.
Initial talks failed; protest continued all day
Earlier, the protest continued for the second day even as all efforts of the Commission and police officials to convince the protestors initially fell flat.
All day, officials of MPPSC through back channels told protesting candidates that they should give their demand in writing and they in their meeting would take a decision on that but to no avail.
The candidates did not end their protest and sought in writing that the exam would be deferred.
MPPSC, which is generally criticised for delaying exams and results, had witnessed the protest by candidates -- who got through the State Service Preliminary Exam-2023 –against the rushed schedule of the main exam.
Around 125 candidates, including girls, staged a sit-in outside the MPPSC office from 2 pm on Monday. Police officials asked candidates to give up their protest else they would be arrested but the threats initially did not budge the protestors.
The candidates stated that they would not give up their protest until their demand for postponing the exam was met.
The Commission has decided to hold the main exam-2023 from March 11 to March 26 raising eyebrows among aspirants, who argue that the time provided for preparation is inadequate.
Aspiring candidates raised concerns about the Commission's deviation from the usual practice of allowing a minimum of 90 days between two significant exams. The discontent stems from the Commission's choice to hold the main exam within a mere 50 days of the preliminary exam, the results of which were declared on January 18.
