Journalism of Courage
The protest by a section of government job aspirants continued on the third day despite promises by the Maharashtra government to support their demand of delaying the implementation of the new pattern for the competitive examinations conducted by the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC). A large number of civil services aspirants had their second night out in the open at the protest site near Balgandharva Auditorium on Jangli Maharaj Road, Pune.
The MPSC has decided to bring in a ‘UPSC-like descriptive pattern’ in its competitive examinations for various government jobs from this year.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar visited the agitators near Balgandharva Auditorium late on Tuesday night. He extended his support to the agitation and said that he has received a letter from the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) urging him to intervene in the matter and help students get their ‘just demand’ met.
Pawar said that he had spoken to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who has agreed to hold a meeting with the MPSC authorities, the state government and the representatives of protestors within two days.
“Provide us names of five representatives among the protesters who will come to Mumbai with us. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved in the joint meeting,” said Pawar.
MPSC aspirants have agreed to send representatives for talks but have decided to continue the protest.
“We have confidence that Sharad Pawar will live up to his promise and take all efforts to resolve the issue. However, in the past few months the government has made many promises but the issue hasn’t been fully resolved. Hence, we will continue the sit-in protest until the MPSC brings out a notification of delaying the implementation of the new examination pattern,” said a protester.
CM Eknath Shinde, who was in Pune on Monday to campaign for the Kasba Assembly bypolls, said during a press conference that the government has conveyed its view on the MPSC exam pattern issue to the Commission. “I have given a letter to MPSC asking it to delay the implementation of the new exam pattern. We agree with the demand raised by students,” Shinde said on Monday night. However, protesters do not seem satisfied with this response.
