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Time of India
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
If you have courage, hold polls tomorrow, Mamata dares PM Modi
KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister criticised Prime Minister and the BJP-led Centre over comments made at his Alipurduar rally, accusing them of "going silent in front of America", selling "sindoor everywhere", and using for "political traction". Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She also targeted junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar's "Operation Bengal after Operation Sindoor" statement in Modi's presence. "This implies equating Bengal with terrorism," she said, challenging Modi to "hold elections tomorrow if you have the courage". Banerjee accused of politicising women's safety, saying: "Why have terrorists responsible for wiping sindoor not been arrested yet? ... he is selling sindoor everywhere, even in poll campaigns." Responding to Modi's "cruelty" remark, Banerjee accused BJP of being "the mastermind behind riots". She referred to Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam to return the PM's teacher recruitment fire: "What happened in Vyapam? How many people died? Some 10,000 teachers lost their jobs in Tripura, 69,000 teachers lost jobs in UP." Banerjee criticised Centre for withholding funds. "We're building roads and homes with state funds. Why has house-building money been stopped? We have Swasthya Sathi, better than Ayushman, and for all," she said, accusing BJP of "bulldozing the federal structure".
India Gazette
29-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
Mamata Banerjee slams PM Modi over allegations against her government, says
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 29 (ANI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his allegations against her government including the teacher recruitment scam and said the state government will respect the verdict of court and find some solution. She accused the BJP of trying to politicise Operation Sindoor and said such remarks are being made when all-party delegations are visiting partner countries. Mamata Banerjee held a press conference hours after PM Modi's rally in Alipurduar and countered the allegations. 'What Modi ji said today, we are not only shocked but also very sad to hear this, when the Opposition is representing the his presence his minister said that they will do Operation Bengal, like Operation Sindoor. I challenge them - if they have guts, go into elections tomorrow, we are ready and Bengal is ready to accept your challenge. But please remember, time is a factor. You must remember the time. Our representative Abhishek Banerjee is also in the team,' she said. 'And he is speaking every day against terrorism, against terror. At that time, Mr Modi, not as the PM but as the BJP president, you are criticising the Government (in Bengal) which is giving you full support, defending the country like anything. You are accusing the Government and you want to blame the Opposition at this time, at this hour to politicise things just like the leader of BJP Jumla are doing garbage of lies. They loot the country and scoot. It doesn't look nice to talk in this manner. Regarding Operation Sindoor, though I don't have any comments but please remember every woman has respect,' she added. The Trinamool Congress chief also hit out at BJP over 'Vyapam scam' in Madhya Pradesh. 'You are talking about the SSC teachers. Who did it? Did we do it or jobs were lost in the court case? Who did the court case, CPM and BJP. What happened in your Vyapam Scam? How many people died because of this in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh? In Tripura, your government removed over 10,000 teachers. In UP 69,000 teachers lost thier jobs. We have humanity. We will find out some solution. We will respect the verdict of Court and we will work according to our schemes and policies. Let the Court work impartially,' she said. She further said that the PM spoke about roads and homes and asked if he gave money to improve infrastructure. 'Did he give the money to built homes? Did he give the money for 100 days of work under MGNREGA? We made over two lakh rural roads. Between last year and this year, we made over 40,000 km long rural roads through state funds. We had to pay for funds under the MGNREGA scheme. We started the 'Banglar Bari (Gramin)' scheme. First, we gave 47 lakh houses when funds were rolled out in 60:40 have you stopped the payment for 'Banglar Bari' since last 4 years? Still we have facilitated 28 lakh housing units in last 1-1.5 years,' she said. 'You just want to damage Bengal's education system, healthcare, and economy. Your friends - central agencies - are here to intimidate people. Is this not big-scale corruption?,' she asked. She also alleged that the BJP is responsible for the incidents in Murshidabad and Malda. Addressing PM Modi in Alipurduar said the youth and poor families suffer the worst consequences of corruption. He alleged that the education system of West Bengal is being ruined. 'We saw how corruption ruins everything in the teacher recruitment scam. The TMC government in their tenure destroyed the future and families of thousands of teachers and left their children helpless. The whole education system of West Bengal is being ruined. The absence of teachers has put the future of lakhs of students at risk. The TMC leaders have committed such a huge sin. The limit is that even today these people are not ready to accept their mistake. Instead, they blame the courts,' he said. 'The youth, poor, and middle-class (of West Bengal) are bearing the brunt of corruption. We've seen how corruption leads to destruction, especially in the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam. The TMC government has ruined the future of thousands of teachers and their families. This is not just the problem of few thousand teachers, but the entire education system is deteriorating. Even now, they refuse to admit their mistakes and are instead blaming courts,' he added. Bengal is slated to face assembly polls next year. (ANI)
NDTV
28-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Madhya Pradesh Job Hopefuls Crushed By Errors And Fees: "Paying To Be Cheated?"
Bhopal: In a small 10x10 room in Bhopal's Ashoka Garden area, two young men from different districts of Madhya Pradesh have been living, studying, and dreaming together for the past three years. Chandan Lodhi from Vidisha and Ajay Singh Maravi from Dindori have turned this cramped space into a kitchen, library, and bedroom-all in one. There's no study table here. A makeshift mat made from cement bags becomes a bed at night after books are cleared. In one corner lie their ration, bedding, and notebooks - one of them left open beside a small stove, on which vegetables are being cooked. Hanging above is a picture of Lord Ram and a hand-written quote from Baba Saheb Ambedkar: "Education is the milk of a lioness, whoever drinks it will roar." But how can these lions roar, they ask, when they're being charged just to question mistakes in the system? The Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board (ESB), formerly Vyapam, recently hiked the objection fee for errors in exam questions from Rs 60 to Rs 185, including GST. That means if the exam paper contains wrong or misleading questions, it's the students who must pay to correct the board's mistake. "The money coming from home is barely Rs 2,500-3,000 a month," says Chandan. "Out of that, we pay for room rent, ration, coaching fees... and now, this objection fee. If four questions are wrong, it's Rs 740 gone. Why are we being penalised for their errors?" Dreams Deferred, Not Delivered Abhishek Singh from Bhopal has a similar story. He waited two years for the result of the MP Police Recruitment Exam. When it finally came, he missed the merit list by just 1.5 marks. "People say it's just one and a half marks," he says, "but that was two years of my life - gone. If the result had come on time, I could have prepared for other exams. But I waited, and now that opportunity is lost too." Adding to the frustration, candidates say they're no longer told which questions have already been challenged - forcing them to spend multiple objection fees on the same errors. "Is this a recruitment process or a subscription-based business?" asks one aspirant. According to official data, The ESB has conducted 112 exams between 2016 and 2024. Over 1.5 crore candidates have applied. Rs 530 crore was collected from exam fees. Rs 278 crore was paid to agencies for online exams. Rs 58 crore was earned as interest from banks. Rs 297 crore was transferred to the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) for the Scooty-Laptop Scheme. Despite this, students continue to bear the brunt of exam mismanagement. Broken Promises And Political Responses In the run-up to the last election, then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had promised that candidates would no longer have to pay exam fees multiple times. "If you apply for five jobs, you'll only pay the fee once," he had said. That promise, however, has remained unfulfilled. Deputy Leader of the Opposition Hemant Katare criticised the state government: "Crores are being collected in the name of exam forms. And when the exams are cancelled or papers go wrong, the students get no refund. This system is punishing the youth for its own mistakes. The government should fine the question-setters, not the candidates." Minister of State for Employment, Gautam Tetwal, however, dismissed the criticism. "Congress only knows how to make allegations. The BJP government is working fast and effectively," he said. The infamous Vyapam scam may have rebranded itself as ESB, but students say nothing has changed beyond the nameplate. Their biggest concern now is not just the fee hike - but the fundamental question: When the system is at fault, why should the students pay the price? For now, the wait for timely results, fair exams, and justice continues. And in rooms like the one in Ashoka Garden, hope flickers quietly in the corners, just like the single stove keeping the night warm.
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Time of India
Vyapam Whistleblower assault case: Madhya Pradesh HC issues notice to DGP, top officials on FIR against Ashish Chaturvedi
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh High Court (Gwalior Bench) has issued notices to several top-ranking police and administrative officials, including the Principal Secretary (Home), Director General of Police (DGP), and Additional Director General (Complaints), in connection with a criminal case lodged against whistleblower Ashish Kumar Chaturvedi and his family. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The officials have been directed to file their replies within two weeks. The court action follows a writ petition (WP No 6532/2025) filed by Chaturvedi, his father Om Prakash Sharma, and mother Vinita Sharma, through senior advocate D P Singh. The petition alleges that the FIR (Crime No. 114/2025) registered against them was a result of 'abuse of power' and a 'malicious conspiracy' orchestrated under the guise of executing a witness production warrant. Chaturvedi, a key witness in multiple Vyapam-related cases, contends that police personnel forcibly entered his Gwalior residence on 29 March 2025, physically assaulted him, and paraded him to the police station as if he were a hardened criminal. Despite his status as a protected whistleblower — granted police security by the State Security Committee since 2014 — he was allegedly beaten, humiliated, and forcibly injected with a substance at a trauma centre, resulting in severe health complications. The petition points to serious procedural and ethical violations by police officials, including the SHO of Jhansi Road, a sub-inspector (who later became the complainant in the FIR), and others allegedly acting under the instructions of senior officers who had previously been accused by Chaturvedi of corruption, extortion, and other unlawful activities. Notably, the FIR was lodged just hours after the incident, and Sub-Inspector Sharma reportedly sought medical treatment not at a government hospital but at Parivar Super Specialty Hospital, where one of the directors is himself an accused in the Vyapam scam. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Chaturvedi is a prosecution witness in several such cases. This, the petition claims, further exposes the 'collusion' and retaliatory nature of the complaint. The petition includes medical reports, CCTV footage requests, and allegations of police tampering, suggesting that the arrest and FIR were part of a systematic effort to intimidate and silence the whistleblower. Chaturvedi's family was also named in the FIR, adding to the claim that the entire household was targeted. Chaturvedi has also alleged that he was treated inhumanely — including being injected in the hip with an unknown substance that later caused painful swelling and restricted movement — and that these actions violated his fundamental rights, including the right to privacy and protection as a government-recognised whistleblower. 'It was a witness warrant and they treated Chaturvedi like a criminal. Moreover, the warrant was executed almost 15 days ahead of the hearing in court against set norms,' says his advocate.
Hindustan Times
19-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
MP high court quashes 4 FIRs against Vyapam case key accused Sudhir Sharma
BHOPAL/JABALPUR: The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has quashed all four FIRs registered against mining baron Sudhir Sharma in connection with the large-scale irregularities in admission to medical colleges and government recruitments more than a decade ago. A division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and justice Vivek Jain passed the order to cancel the four FIRs filed by CBI in the Vyapam case on Friday. The detailed order is awaited. Sharma, a mining baron who had started out as a teacher, was close to former technical education minister late Laxmikant Sharma, and was also accused by a special task force and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of acting as a middleman to rig the recruitment exams conducted by Vyapam, now known as MP Employee Selection Board. Sudhir Sharma was arrested in 2014 and spent two years in jail before getting out on bail in the four cases in June 2016. CBI had submitted charge sheets against him accusing him of irregularities in sub-inspector recruitment exam 2012, police constable recruitment exam 2012, contract school teacher recruitment-2 exam 2011 and Forest Guard Recruitment Exam 2013. Sharma, who appealed to the high court to quash the cases, said the CBI case did not allege any financial transaction between Sharma and any other person in the four cases. 'It is not mentioned anywhere in the charge sheet and the excel sheet of CBI that the petitioner earned any kind of financial benefit. The cases registered have been registered on the basis of a memorandum of some witnesses. As there is no evidence of earning financial benefit, the registered FIR is eligible to be cancelled,' lawyer Kapil Sharma, who appeared for him. said. 'He was made an accused only on the basis of Section 27 memorandum and CDR, while there is no direct evidence against him,' the lawyer said, adding that no corroborative evidence was presented by the prosecution against the petitioner to support the charge. He stressed that the prosecution could not make out a case against his client only on the basis of call detail records that revealed he was in regular contact with co-accused Vyapam officials who were his old acquaintances.
