Tripura: Heads roll as answer key gets leaked ahead of exam; 2 held

AGARTALA — The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) on Monday removed its recruitment board chairperson and members, two days after the answer keys of a recruitment examination of the council were leaked hours before the exams, scheduled for Sunday (June 9).

The politically-crucial TTAADC since April 2021 has been governed by the tribal-based Tipra Motha Party (TMP).

TMP chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma in his post on X said: “The recruitment board Chairman and members have been removed, and a new board will be set up. For the sake of transparency, this is important as there has to be accountability. A police investigation is on, and I want to set an example. The examination date should be announced shortly.”

Recruitment board Chairman Data Mohan Jamatia is a former judge and Tripura’s ex-Law Department Secretary who, after retirement, was appointed as head of the TTAADC’s 4-member recruitment board.

The TTAADC authorities also filed a case with the police over the leakage of answer keys and the police have so far arrested two persons.

Various organisations including the Tipra Students’ Federation (TSF), the student wing of the TMP, on Monday submitted a memorandum to Tripura governor Indra Sena Reddy Nallu demanding his intervention to probe the case by the CBI.

The answer keys of a recruitment examination of the TTAADC were leaked on Saturday (June 8), leading the authorities to postpone the recruitment process just a day before the exams were scheduled to be conducted on Sunday.

TTAADC Chief Executive Member (CEM) Purna Chandra Jamatia said that the council had advertised for recruitment 110 vacant posts of Sub-Zonal Development Officer (SZDO) and Deputy Principal Officer (DPO) positions on the Council.

Around 26,000 job aspirants are scheduled to sit for the examination in 71 centers across the state on Sunday.

He also said the TTAADC administration would announce the new dates for recruitment examinations after deciding the same in the next 10 days.

The process to recruit for the posts of SZDOs and DPOs was initiated for the first time in 20 years, said Debbarma, and appealed to the candidates to cooperate with the TTAADC administration.