Students in Pune demand MPSC chairman's resignation as protest enters eighth day

The students' agitation against the functioning of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) in Pune continued for the eighth day on Thursday. The students are camped near S. M. Joshi bridge, close to Garware College. Their main demand is that commission chairman Vivek Bhimanwar resign. The protesters also said the commission's working should be cleaned up and its examinations made transparent.

Meanwhile, a demand for the resignation of Minister Atul Save over irregularities in the Mahajyoti examination was also raised at the protest. The students allege that examination centres in Nanded, Pune and some other places faced technical problems and irregularities during the Mahajyoti exam. They want the exam cancelled and held again, and these centres blacklisted. The protesters appealed to MPSC students to support the Mahajyoti students' agitation. They also said that if Mahajyoti students join the protest, the demand for Save's resignation will be added to their demands.

MLA Rohit Pawar spoke to the students at the protest site and raised questions about the MPSC's functioning. He said poor students and those from villages face severe financial hardship in preparing for competitive examinations, and are hit hardest by flaws in the examination process. According to Pawar, the students do not want the normalisation method to be adopted in MPSC examinations.

The issue of irregularities in the TET examination was also raised at the protest site. The protesters asked whether, after the earlier inquiry into the TET irregularities, the government had taken any firm action on later incidents. They demanded that the government also take the questions of tribal students seriously. Students and members of the public from several districts, including Nanded, Jalna, Pune, Nagpur and Ahilyanagar, backed the agitation. The students said they intend to continue it.

Earlier, a symbolic funeral bier of the MPSC chairman was burnt. On Wednesday, a ceremony of collecting its ashes was held at the protest site, during which the students shouted to express their anguish.

Maharashtra Legislative Council member Amit Gorkhe said he was himself an MPSC student. According to him, he supports the agitation so that students' time is not wasted and transparency is maintained in the objective-type format. Gorkhe said he would raise the students' voice in the legislature. He expressed confidence that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis would certainly resolve the students' issues and would also take the initiative on them in the coming session.

Former MLA Jagdish Mulik said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is fond of students and always tries to help them advance. According to Mulik, a committee headed by Commissioner V. Radha has been formed on the MPSC issue and its work is under way. He said he was confident a positive decision would follow. He also said leaders such as Rohit Pawar were misleading the students and using them politically, and that this should be stopped.