Amaravati, Mar 14 (IANS): Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday demanded a CBI investigation into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment exams by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).

Suspecting the hand of some senior persons in the state government in the large scale irregularities in the Group-1 exams of the APPSC, he demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe to bring the facts to light and do justice to the youth.

Regretting that all the systems totally collapsed during the five-year rule of the YSRCP, Chandrababu Naidu said that the APPSC, a constitutional body, is no exception. Making the APPSC a platform for political gains, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, has deceived lakhs of youth by resorting to massive irregularities in the evaluation of the Group-1 answer sheets, he added.

Demanding that the facts be made public on why such huge irregularities have taken place in these exams for the first time in the history of the APPSC, Naidu came down heavily on the state government for resorting to deceptive methods in the name of digital evaluation and manual evaluation.

To appoint their own persons in the high-profile Group-1 posts, these positions were marketed at high prices doing great injustice to those who are actually eligible for these posts seriously affecting the high credibility of the APPSC, Naidu alleged and added that the ruling party has made the APPSC a political rehabilitation centre besides making efforts to divert the attention of the High Court from the evaluation of the answer sheets.

Naidu also demanded that APPSC chairman Gowtham Sawang and secretary P. Seetha Ramanjaneyulu be suspended immediately and a probe be conducted after registering a case against them.

The TDP supremo expressed concern that there is every possibility of the youth getting disheartened as there are no job opportunities in the state either in the government or in the private sector. The Jagan government has totally disappointed lakhs of youth who struggled hard for years together in the hope of getting selected for the Group-1 posts.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday cancelled the 2018 Group-I (mains) examination, ruling that the evaluation of the answer sheets was done against the rules of the APPSC.

The court directed the APPSC to conduct the examination afresh, evaluate the answer sheets as per the norms and complete the selection process within six months.

The court pronounced the order on the petition of a few Group-I job aspirants, who appeared for the examination in 2018. They alleged discrepancies in the evaluation of the answer sheets.