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Shivraj Singh Chouhan hits pause after patwari recruitment exam comes under cloud
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s announcement on Twitter came hours after the state government rebutted allegations around the recruitment exam
BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday put on hold the process to appoint successful candidates of the group 2 and patwari recruitment examination results after candidates and opposition parties protested against alleged irregularities across Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
“Doubts are being expressed on the results of one centre in the Group 2 Sub Group 4 and patwari recruitment examination results. I am stopping the appointments made on the basis of this examination and the centre’s result will be re-examined,” Chouhan said in a post on Twitter.
Around 1.4 million students appeared for the examination conducted between March 15 to April 26, the results of which were announced on June 30.
Candidates have alleged that seven of the ten toppers in the examination appeared for the test at the same examination centre. The institute, which operated this particular centre, is allegedly linked to two leaders of the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
MP Youth Congress spokesperson Vivek Tripathi also alleged that many candidates were selected on the basis of fake handicapped certificates and fake contracts. “Most of the rigging has been done in the name of normalization,” he said.
The chief minister’s decision comes against the backdrop of the Congress stepping up its offensive over allegations of irregularities. On Thursday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the offensive on Twitter. “Once again there are reports of a scam in recruitment under the rule of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. There are reports of jobs being bid for in lakhs of rupees. Why is the government shying away from conducting an inquiry? Why do the names of BJP leaders keep cropping up on the allegation of being involved in recruitment scams?” she said in a post on Twitter.
Hours before the chief minister decided to put the recruitment process on hold, the state government had rebutted the allegations.
“Overall, as many as 8,617 candidates were selected from 78 examination centres. The information regarding selection of 1,000 candidates from NRI College located in Gwalior is misleading and false. A total of 114 candidates (1.32%) have been selected from here. From other examination centres, a maximum of 321 candidates (3.73%) in one institute to a minimum of 29 candidates (0.34%) have been selected on merit,” the government said.
It added that the dates and shifts in which the 10 toppers appeared for the examination were different, which means that they had different question papers.
“Everyone’s profile registration and application forms have also been done from different places on different dates... these facts prove that there are no irregularities in the paper,” it said.
