Damocles sword hangs over Pradhan

New Delhi: The Cockroach Janta Party, which is spearheading protests against the NEET paper leak, has told two Union ministers that its demand for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation is "non-negotiable". The two sides will meet again on Saturday.

Two representatives of the CJP held a two-hour meeting with Union ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh at the Vithalbhai Patel House in New Delhi.

"The government has asked for time till tomorrow afternoon on our demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation. We hope the government will remove him soon," Ranka said. CJP representative said the CJP has demanded ₹1 crore compensation for families of suicide victims, and that FIR against protesters should be withdrawn.

Friday's meeting took place hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike late on Thursday night following government assurances on his key demands.

"Furthermore, the Government of India, the head of the Rapid Action Force, and the Delhi Police Commissioner ought to publicly apologise to the students who were brutally thrashed by their forces," it saidt. The organisation also requested that the demands be accepted at the earliest. If not, the movement would only grow bigger and spread across the country, it said.

In a late night video message for protesting students, Prime Minister Modi announced that a bill containing provisions for strong action against paper leaks will be introduced in Parliament next week.

After ending his 26-day fast, activist Sonam Wangchuk said that the government assured that families of suicide victims linked to the recent NEET paper leak would receive adequate compensation.

Captioning the video, "END OF HUNGER... BEGINNING OF ACCOUNTABILITY...!", he said the meeting followed support from lawmakers across party lines.

Meanwhile, National Testing Agency has terminated 47 officials; legal, criminal action to be taken against some.