Government requested day to decide on Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation: CJP
What's the story
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has stood firm on its demand for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. After a meeting with senior government ministers, the CJP said the government has asked "for time till tomorrow afternoon on our demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation." The meeting was held at Vithal Patel House in New Delhi and attended by Union Ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh from the government's side and CJP representatives Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka.
Ongoing negotiations
Government seeks more time on CJP's demand
Giving an update on the meeting, Ranka said, "We hope the government will remove him (Pradhan) soon."
"If there is no resignation, the movement will become much bigger from here," Das warned after the meeting.
While the government has sought time to decide on Pradhan's resignation, it has expressed "in-principle approval on the two demands of compensation (for families of NEET aspirants who died by suicide) and withdrawal of FIRs, legal cases on students," Ranka added.
Centre
Meeting went on for almost two hours
Union Health Minister Nadda said the discussions stretched for nearly two hours and covered both the protesters' demands and their proposed reforms.
"The meeting went on for almost two hours. They had three main demands and five reform suggestions for examinations. We have told them that we will meet them again tomorrow afternoon and tell them about the discussion we had within the government," Nadda told reporters.
CJP
This was 2nd meeting
This was the second meeting between the government and the CJP, which has been spearheading the protest demanding education reforms and Pradhan's resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak case.
On Thursday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Union Cabinet would consider a draft bill providing for fast-track courts and stricter punishment for those involved in paper leaks.
ANI, citing sources, reported that the Cabinet has cleared the bill.