Odisha sees protests over police recruitment exam postponement

bhubaneswar: hundreds of aspirants held a demonstration in bhubaneswar on friday after the written test for the recruitment of police sub-inspectors was postponed again.the written test of the combined police service examination, 2024, was supposed to be held on october 5 and 6, but was postponed by the odisha police recruitment board (oprb) after 117 people were arrested in berhampur.of those arrested, 114 were aspirants and had allegedly paid rs 10 lakh as an advance to a racket for securing jobs. they were nabbed on their way to a 'special coaching centre' in andhra pradesh, according to the police. the remaining three are suspected brokers who facilitated the deals, they said.a total of 1.53 lakh candidates have applied for 933 police sub-inspector posts. the examination was first scheduled for march 8 and 9, then postponed to october 5 and 6, before being rescheduled again.hundreds of aspirants demonstrated near the state library in bhubaneswar, accusing the oprb of “gross negligence” and alleging it facilitated “malpractices.”the opposition congress and bjd criticised the bjp government over the issue, alleging a multi-crore job scam.the bjd released purported photos of some state ministers with a person whose company it claimed had been given the exam contract, alleging he spearheaded the scam.“these photos indicate that the state government and bjp leaders were directly involved in the irregularities,” alleged bjd students' wing president ipsita sahoo, seeking a cbi probe.she claimed the state government cancelled 16 recruitment examinations in the last 15 months due to irregularities and questioned why only three brokers were arrested while others remained free.state congress spokesperson bibhuti mohapatra alleged that the son of a former senior police officer was among the arrested aspirants, suggesting involvement of senior officials and bjp leaders.state bjp president manmohan samal rejected the allegations, maintaining that the government believes in transparency. “had that been the case, why did the state government postpone the examination on its own after getting information of sabotage?” he asked.