UP: RO/ARO Exam Cancelled Amid Massive Protests Over Paper Leak, to be Held Within 6 Months

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to cancel the review officer/assistant review officer (RO/ARO) Exam 2024 conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) following reports of paper leaks.

The exam, which saw participation from over seven lakh aspirants, on February 11, will be re-conducted within six months. This development comes amid ongoing protests by civil service aspirants against the alleged leak of question papers.

The protesting aspirants alleged that the leaked original question paper was copied using photostat, scan, voice typing and Google Lens instead of typing so that it could not be ascertained from which centre the paper was leaked.

Based on the evidence provided to the government and a report submitted by the UPPSC, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the cancellation of both sessions of the RO/ARO (preliminary) examination. He also directed that re-examination should be conducted within six months, a press release issued by the government on Saturday evening stated. 

The release mentioned that the Chief Minister directed the UP Police’s Special Task Force (STF) to identify and take strict legal action against those involved in the case

The Chief Minister emphasised the urgency of the STF investigation, expecting swift results. He assured the public that all individuals involved in compromising the integrity of the examination would face appropriate consequences.
“The government remains committed to upholding the sanctity of the examination process and ensuring a level playing field for all aspiring candidates,” the chief minister said in a statement on Saturday.

As soon as news about the cancellation of RO/ARO came up, the students who had been agitating since February 11, celebrated and distributed sweets at the protest site The students said the government had to bow down to the agitation by the candidates. 

"It is a big victory for the protesting students and candidates," Abhishek Shukla, a protesting candidate said. 

Notably, Amitabh Thakur, former IPS (Indian Police Service) officer and national president of Azad Adhikar Sena supported the protesting candidates and approached the court with evidence. 

The examination on February 11 at 2,387 centres across 58 districts, had seen participation from 64% of the total 10,76,004 registered candidates, to fill up 411 vacancies.

Soon after news surfaced of an alleged paper leak, aspirants from across the state started protesting against UPPSC. The candidates began sit-in protests at Pathar Girija Ghar of Civil Lines in Prayagraj district and demanded an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the paper leak.

The candidates were demanding that the examination be cancelled. There were complaints that some questions in the exam paper had been allegedly shared on social media earlier. In response to the allegations, the UPPSC has asked aspirants to send evidence of the paper leak through an e-mail to roaro2023info@gmail.com till March 2. The government has also initiated an enquiry into the allegations of a paper leak and has asked students to send evidence to secyappoint@nic by February 27.

The protest took an ugly turn in Prayagraj on Monday when the police chased, kicked and lathi-charged aspirants when a group of candidates tried to protest outside the UPPSC office, as reported earlier by NewsClick.

Earlier, the government had ordered the cancellation of the police constables recruitment examination, hwre, too, papers had leaked on February 17 and 18. The STF is also probing this matter. In November 2021, the UPTET exam was cancelled over allegations of a paper leak.

Political parties, including the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress came down heavily on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for playing with the future of students by luring them with government jobs. They asked the BJP to introspect why question papers of all major examinations in UP were getting leaked one after the other.