BSP demands President Murmu intervention in TSPSC paper leak case

Hyderabad: The Bahujan Samaj Party's Telangana president RS Praveen Kumar has written to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking her intervention to replace Chairman and members of Telangana State Public Service commission (TSPSC) which has been rocked by a question paper leak.

Praveen Kumar, a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has also requested the her to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the question paper leak scandal.

He argued that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government is not at all competent to investigate such a serious scandal. Not much can be expected from the SIT which reports to the Chief Minister whose office itself is under the cloud of suspicion, he wrote.

The press briefing by the Chief Minister's son KT Rama Rao on behalf of the TSPSC and SIT is further adding strength to the suspicion that SIT is formed by the government only to save the actual perpetrators who are holding high offices from prosecution and punish only the small fry and give the case unceremonious burial, he alleged. This is precisely the reason why the BSP is requesting for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has a proven track record of successfully investigating such scandals in the country since independence, he added.

He also wrote that the future of lakhs of job aspirants is at stake now with the ongoing scandalous paper leakage/selling of the prestigious Group-I, AEE, AE and 15 other examinations notified by the TSPSC in the last several years.

"It's a matter of shame on the part of the TSPSC which is constituted under Article 315 of the Constitution to indulge in such illegal and criminal activities with active collusion of the ruling party," he said.

The entire affairs of TSPSC exams ended up as a scandal of gigantic proportions, where most of the question papers with master answer keys were leaked to the insiders and their relatives working in the commission for several years. This spine-chilling episode has compromised the integrity of the selection process and caused immense harm to the aspirations of millions of job seekers, reads the letter.

Stating that the TSPSC, which is the prime accused in this scandal, is going ahead with recruitment schedules at the behest of the government, he demanded that TSPSC Chairman and members be replaced with most competent and reputed persons.

"An independent inquiry by the CBI is not only crucial but also urgent, because there is very chance that critical evidence that can nail prime accused may either be destroyed or the lives of suspects who have been arrested so far will be endangered as they hold the crucial secrets of the unholy nexus among the ruling party, the CMO and the commission," Praveen Kumar claimed.

He demanded that all recent TSPSC examinations be reconducted, all upcoming ones be postponed until the Commission is completely overhauled, the recruitment process is thoroughly insulated from extraneous influences and all guilty are made to feel the full weight of law.

He also demanded that the entire functioning of the TSPSC may thoroughly be probed into by a sitting Supreme Court judge to avoid such serious embarrassment in future.