Students list demands, stage sit-in at UPPSC gate, police on alert

Competitive exam aspirants protested outside UPPSC for exam transparency, demanding answer keys and fair processes, leading to clashes with police.

Competitive exam aspirants staged a protest outside the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) headquarters on Monday, demanding transparency in the PCS-2024 (Preliminary) and RO-ARO 2023 (Preliminary) examinations.

The protest outside the gate of UPPSC headquarters in Prayagraj on Monday afternoon. (HT Photo)

The protest began around 11 am with students holding banners and chanting “Vande Mataram” as they staged a sit-in at the Commission’s main gate.

Their key demands include the release of the revised final answer key, implementing the migration rule in UPPSC as is done in UPSC, category-wise cut-off marks, individual scores of all candidates—both successful and unsuccessful—and making carbon copies of OMR sheets available on the official website.

To maintain order, nearly 300 personnel from RAF, PAC, and local police were deployed, barricades were set up, and drone surveillance was initiated. Over 200 students were present at the protest site, with numbers continuing to swell.

Police remained on high alert throughout the day as resentment had been brewing among aspirants over the issues for the past few weeks. Despite repeated requests from authorities, the protesters refused to vacate the road, causing traffic disruption. A minor scuffle broke out when police tried to clear the area, leading to the detention of two students. However, they were released shortly afterward under pressure from fellow protesters.

On Monday afternoon, the situation escalated further when Akhilesh Yadav, a student from Kashi, clashed with the police and was forcibly removed.

The aspirants reiterated that their agitation would continue until all demands were met. “Transparency is essential for assessing our performance and preparing for future exams,” they said.

During the day-long protest, one student, Ashutosh Pandey, fell ill and was rushed to a hospital. Meanwhile, several others, including Himanshu Yadav, president of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha BHU unit, were detained en route from Varanasi and are currently being held at the BHU police station. No injuries to protesters or security personnel were reported.

Meanwhile, in a video on social media, Prashant Pandey, media in-charge of Pratiyogi Chatra Sangharsh Samiti, stated that they had already stated that it would be a purely student movement, but a conspiracy was hatched by political workers to disrupt the movement and create chaos. As a result, the students withdrew from the movement and returned to their rooms. He said that the student movement was disrupted due to objectionable slogans raised by some activists of political parties.

Ahead of the proposed protest by competitive exam aspirants in Prayagraj, Meja police had placed Nitesh Tiwari, district president of the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha (youth wing of the Samajwadi Party) for Yamunapar Prayagraj, under house arrest at his residence in Lakhanpur, Meja constituency. The police cited security reasons, maintaining peace and order, and legal procedures for their action.

Tiwari said that he fully supported the competitive exam aspirants and that this issue is not about politics, but about the future of the youth. He alleged that the government was scared of the planned mass gathering in Prayagraj and was resorting to police repression to suppress the voice of students.

In a tweet, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the inhumane beatings and humiliation of unemployed youth by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, including dragging them by their hair, as a clear manifestation of the BJP’s arrogance of power, which had become utterly inhuman in its display of strength.

He stated that the BJP should not forget that the young students did not want to fight and that they were simply demanding a transparent and fair recruitment process.

“We stand in solidarity with these competitive exam aspirants. We strongly demand a SIR into the allegations of a flawed examination system and corrupt selection process at the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission. The youth will never forgive BJP for this,” he wrote.

Similarly, the Congress party in a tweet mentioned that these young people were demanding jobs from the BJP government. The government sent the police, who beat them up and then took them into custody. The police had been instructed to treat the unemployed youth brutally, so that they would forget about demanding jobs in the future. The police followed the orders and showed no mercy, the tweet mentioned.