Chandigarh, August 12
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has alleged that the Congress government had used unemployment in the state as a mean of looting; because the government had earlier levied crores of rupees from the unemployed by charging hefty fees for the recruitment of Patwaris and now it had announced a plan to loot more crores from the candidates by charging a fee of Rs 500 per question for rechecking claims.
In a joint statement issued from the party headquarters here on Thursday, AAP MLA and Youth Wing state president Meet Hayer and spokesperson Advocate Dinesh Chadha said recently, the Punjab government’s SSS Board had conducted a competitive examination for the recruitment of Patwaris, in which five questions itself were entered incorrectly. “Instead of taking responsibility for this mistake and clarifying the status of correct answers, the SSS Board issued a new decree that if the candidate finds the answers incorrect, he can deposit Rs 500 per answer and get it rechecked,” they said.
Meet Hayer said for a government job, if a candidate claims five answers with a fee of Rs 500 per answer; he will have to pay a fee of Rs 2,500. “In this way, the Congress government would take out another Rs 52.5 crore from the pockets of 2.10 lakh unemployed candidates appearing for the Patwari examination as every candidate wants to get a job. It’s a blatant crime to rob the pockets of the unemployed,” he said.
Advocate Dinesh Chadha alleged when the questions were misrepresented in the answer sheet printed by the SSS board, then what was the fault of the candidates? “For what mistake is the government agency asking more money from the candidates?” he questioned. He said instead of admitting its mistake, the government has started filling its coffers by looting unemployed and poor candidates. Chadha demanded that the Congress government should not turn unemployment into a business to fill the coffers.
He said the government should admit the mistake of the answer sheet in the Patwari recruitment test and announce concessional marks and immediately stop charging fees on the claim of correct answers from the candidates; and instead of cutting the pockets of the unemployed to fill the coffers, there should be a crackdown on the mafia.
Criticizing the Congress government, Dinesh Chadha said during the 2017 elections, Captain Amarinder Singh and the Congress party had promised to provide an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month to the unemployed in the state till they get government jobs. “But after coming to power, Captain Amarinder Singh neither gave jobs nor unemployment benefits to the unemployed youth. On the contrary, the unemployed are being robbed of huge fees,” he added.
He said the Congress government was so indifferent towards the unemployed that it had decided to hold the examinations for the posts of Jail Warden and Cooperative Banks in Punjab on the same day. This will hit the opportunity of half of the aspiring candidates, he said, adding that therefore, an examination should be held on 27th, 28th and 29th of August instead of other dates.
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