Cockroach Janta Party withdraws protest from Jantar Mantar as Pradhan resigns, govt agrees to demands

PTC News Desk: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called of its protest with immediate effect  and asked the supporters at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to return home. 

The announcement came in a joint government-CJP press conference this evening, following the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister. His resignation was the CJP's core demand over the NEET paper leak.

"We urge all protesters to go home as the government has accepted our demands," Saurav Das said in the presence of the two Union ministers.

Ashutosh Ranka added, "The government has accepted all our demands after 36 days of protest. We urge everyone to peacefully withdraw from the protest sites. Our demands were not radical but basic, and the government has now accepted them." 

Also Read: Dharmendra Pradhan resigns as Education Minister amid students protest over NEET irregularities

Following the announcement, Delhi Police using loudspeakers asked the protesters to vacate Jantar Mantar as the demands have been met. The students had been holding the demonstration for over a month, triggering dwindling crowd at nearby markets, traffic diversions and Metro station closures.

"We had demanded compensation of Rs 1 crore for the families of NEET victims. The government has agreed to this, stating that an honorary compensation will be given to those families under whatever rules and regulations allow. Apart from this, we also placed a five-point demand charter before the government, which talked about broader educational reforms and exam reforms. We will meet the government again in about four weeks regarding that demand charter..." Saurav Das said.

The CJP also said that the government has agreed to withdraw all the FIRs registered against the students across India after the July 20 'Chalo Sansad' march at Jantar Mantar.

"Our second demand was that all the FIRs filed against the protesters, not just in Delhi but in all BJP-ruled and BJP-allied states, should be withdrawn. This was also our second demand. The government has accepted that demand as well. Furthermore, the withdrawal will be done shortly. The government has assured us that it will share copies of all the FIRs filed - as per our last information, 15 to 20 FIRs were filed in Delhi - and we will receive those copies within three to four days in any case. The government has also assured that the withdrawal will be done shortly," Saurav Das said.

He said the CJP has shared a draft in the form of a written guarantee with the government. "The government has said it will share this with us by Tuesday. We hope that by Tuesday we will receive the government's guarantees regarding these FIRs and any future action."