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7 months on, MP patwari recruitment exam given a clean chit; orders issued
Concerns about the exam surfaced after it transpired that 7 of the 10 toppers were from one examination centre run by a BJP leader
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday approved the issuance of appointment letters to successful candidates in a recruitment examination held last year after a one-man committee that probed the examination did not find any irregularities.
The MP government’s general administration department order comes after a clean chit by the one-man committee of retired high court judge, justice Rajendra Kumar Verma, which was set up following allegations that the examination for Group-2, Sub-Group-4 and patwari recruitment examination conducted by the MP Employees Selection Board was rigged.
Concerns about the irregularities emerged after the results were declared on June 30 and it transpired that seven of the ten candidates who topped the examination were from the examination centre, NRI college, which was run by Sanjeev Kushwaha, who was then the Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting Bhind MLA.
With the state elections just a few months away, then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paused the recruitment process and ordered a probe on July 20.
A government official said the retired judge submitted his report last month. “The report said there are many colleges from where a large number of students were selected so NRI college was not the only college from where a large number of students were selected.”
Former union minister and Congress leader, Arun Yadav demanded a proper probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, saying the move to get a retired judge to investigate the alleged scandal was a whitewash.
Ranjit Kisanvanshi, who led the student protests against the alleged irregularities, demanded that the probe committee report should be made public so that the public can also see how undeserving candidates actually got selected.
“During media interviews, the so-called meritorious candidates were asked basic questions related to the name of prime minister, president and chief minister but some of them even failed to answer them,” said Kisanvanshi.
