Congress alleges serious lapses in SSC exam

NEW DELHI: Days after Rahul Gandhi joined the protesting students, the Congress alleged that 9 SSC exam paper leaks took place in four years of Modi government and demanded a time-bound probe in the scam.

“The government is playing with the future of 2 crore youths who apply for around 50,000 jobs through the SSC exam every year,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

The Congress also demanded that the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh and SSC Chairman Asim Khurana be removed from their post to ensure a fair probe.

Charging the youth have lost faith in the system, the Congress said that instead of resolving the issue, the students were beaten up and persecuted for the protests.

Noting that by 2017, seven SSC question papers had leaked under Modi government, Surjewala said two more exams Combined Graduate Level and Combined Higher Secondary Level were also cancelled in Patna in March 2018 as answers were leaked half an hour before the exam time.

Remote Access Software was used to leak the question papers, alleged the Congress while pointing out that all such bodies needed to get a safety audit of their computer systems done.

Alleging serious irregularities in the conduct of the SSC exams, the Congress further said while the SSC had no secure computer and software systems as mandated, one of the centers was ironically operating from the residence of a BJP leader in Bhadohi, UP. In another case, a student had been issued 700 admit cards, raising doubts over the entire process.

“The SSC has no secure system to upload the question papers to maintain secrecy. This job is being done by private vendors. The Modi government can’t even ensure a fair exam to the youth,” said Surjewala, adding “ SSC must upload question papers on a secure server which is released 3-4 hours before exam. But SSC outsourced this responsibility to a third party. A security audit must be done to ensure it is not leaked. Shockingly, not once has this audit been performed.”

Moreover, CCTV cameras had not been installed in most exam centers across the country, he said.

Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law & Justice in its report on March, 14, 2018 censured the Modi government and SSC for not maintaining the ‘sanctity of examination process’, ‘lack of trust of public in general and of examinees in particular’, ‘malpractices and technical glitches’, ‘supervision on private entities involved in examination process’ and ‘audit of hardware and software’, the Congress said.