Among the many birthday wishes and compliments that Narendra Modi got on September 17, one cluster stood out - Staff Selection Commission aspirants awaiting exam results for two years.
The aspirants tweeted that they had appeared for the SSC Combined Graduate Level exam in 2017. The final results were delayed as the apex court stayed the process in 2018 after allegations of a paper leak.
#ReleaseCGL17result trended on Twitter late in the day.
Around 30 lakh candidates had appeared in June 2017 for the first round of the test, of whom nearly 1.5 lakh qualified in the Tier I results announced in November that year. These aspirants for government jobs in central offices still don't know if they made it.
After the news of the paper leak broke, thousands of candidates protested for days at the SSC headquarters in New Delhi, demanding the ouster of SSC chairman Ashim Khurana and department of personnel and training minister Jitendera Singh.
After several days of protesting outside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro, near the SSC office, then home ninister Rajnath Singh agreed to a CBI inquiry into the matter.
On March 2018, the Supreme Court stayed the declaration of the result pending the inquiry. The stay was lifted this year in May, but the results till now have not been announced.
According to reports published widely early this year, Khurana, who still hold the chair at the SSC, was given a year’s extension against rules in the department of personnel and training. It was found through an RTI that the government bypassed legal norms, even went against the recommendation of the law ministry, to extend the tenure of the Gujarat cadre officer.
“…by extending Mr. Khurana’s tenure illegally and unconstitutionally, the PM is granting patronage to corruption in the nation’s largest recruitment agency,” Swaraj India member Anupam was quoted as telling The Hindu when the news broke. Swaraj India was at the forefront of the protests against corruption in the way SSC conducted exams through its Yuva Halla Bol campaign.
