Ahead of assembly polls, the Madhya Pradesh Congress has upped the ante against the BJP government and has alleged a huge scam in the Patwari recruitment test conducted by the Employees Selection Board (ESB) of the state government. The party has demanded a CBI probe into the matter and total transparency in the future tests.
The Congress has called it the ‘Vyapam part-3’ as ESB is the changed name of the MP Professional Examination Board (PEB) that was better known by its Hindi acronym ‘Vyapam’. The state was rocked by a series of scams in recruitment and admission tests conducted by the Vyapam about a decade ago and the entire controversy became infamous as the Vyapam scam.
In a press conference on Wednesday, former MP Congress president Arun Yadav and media department head K.K. Mishra alleged that large-scale irregularities were done in the selection exam ‘under the directive and supervision of BJP leaders’, leading to talented youths remaining deprived and those having backing of BJP leaders getting selected.
The main point on which the Congress allegations are based is that seven of the top 10 candidates selected through the ‘Group 2 Sub-group 4 Patwari and other posts recruitment test’ of the ESB were from the same exam centre – the NRI College of Engineering and Management, Gwalior. The college is owned by MLA Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha – who was elected from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but crossed over to the ruling BJP last year.
The ESB had conducted the test for filling up of 8,945 posts of Group-2 (Sub Group -4) like patwari junior accountant, assistant auditor and clerks. About 14 lakh candidates appeared for the recruitment test held between March 15 and 26 and the result was declared on June 30. About 9,000 candidates were declared passed.
During the press conference, the Congress leaders shared the result sheets and admit cards of the top 10 students to point out various discrepancies that give rise to suspicion of scam. Apart from the fact that seven of 10 toppers are from the same exam centre, five of these toppers wrote their names in Hindi as signatures. Congress said that it is rare for educated youth of today to sign in Hindi that too writing plain names and some of these toppers have got full or very high marks in English. “It seems that the Hindi signatures were made under a well-drawn conspiracy so that some other person or solver could appear in place of the actual candidates,” the Congress leaders said.
They pointed out that none of the toppers were interviewed by the media as is normally done, nor did any coaching centre claims them to be their students. In every shift of the test; two to three questions were deleted later, though their answers were correct, there were questions on the normalization process (of giving marks); a female candidate made silly mistakes in English in her admit card details but got full marks in English in the test.
They also pointed out that the topper girl got 185 marks out of 200, while the ESB had deleted 11 questions worth 15 marks due to errors. The leaders asked if someone can get full marks in an objective type competitive exam.
Yadav said that during his tenure as the state Congress president, he had submitted a list of scams of the BJP government with evidence to the state assembly, but no action was taken.
The Congress has demanded criminal case on those involved in the scam following a CBI probe, inquiry into the role of NRI College, making public the details of the top 100 students who cleared the test; doing videography of every step of all future recruitment/selection tests and getting the top 10 students to do interviews with unbiased members of media.
Kamal Nath also tweeted on the issue, highlighting the fact that the BJP leaders are being again found linked to the large-scale irregularities in the recruitment test. “Doing recruitment scam in the name of giving jobs has become the character of Shivraj ji's government. It is useless even to demand an investigation from them because bigger fishes are always saved. I demand that an independent agency should investigate the matter and do justice to the lakhs of unemployed people who appear in these competitive and recruitment exams. Madhya Pradesh now wants freedom from corruption,” he said.
Government denies
State home minister Narottam Mishra, who is also the government spokesman, said that it was wrong to say that there was any irregularity in the Patwari recruitment test. “The test was conducted in April and results announced in May and June, but the Congress people are tweeting when the assembly is in session and when assembly elections are near. I want to attract your attention to the fact that these Congress people have decided to bring up such issues in view of the upcoming elections. Even the Sidhi urination incident was three years old but highlighted now. There are no irregularities in the test and a total 114 candidates have been selected from the college they are mentioning,” he told media persons.
MLA Kushwaha told THE WEEK that his college premises and infrastructure were merely used for the test that was facilitated by the ESB and conducted by a company. “We have got nothing to do with the test otherwise. My college name is being dragged simply because of politics ahead of polls. If I was not a politician, would the same questions have arisen?” he said.
THE WEEK could not talk to ESB exam controller A. Hemlata despite several attempts.
