Himachal government dissolves state staff selection commission

The examination of JOA (IT) scheduled for December 25 was cancelled after the paper leak was detected on December 23 when the vigilance arrested a senior assistant of the commission, Uma Azad, with a solved question paper and ₹2.5 lakh.

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday dissolved the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission located at Hamirpur, whose functioning was suspended within three days after a paper leak was detected in December last year.

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday dissolved the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission located at Hamirpur, whose functioning was suspended within three days after a paper leak was detected in December last year. (HT file photo)

The state government has decided to transfer the ongoing recruitment process from the commission for the convenience of candidates till further arrangements.

“Employees of the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission have been transferred to the surplus pool and options will be given to them to join new departments of their choice,” Sukhu said.

“The reports of departmental inquiry and vigilance bureau probe pointed out irregularities and established that papers were being leaked and sold to selective people for the past three years following which the state government has decided to dissolve the staff selection body with immediate effect,” he added.

Sukhu had on December 26 suspended the functioning of the commission and ordered a probe.

The commission’s secretary, Jitender Kumar, and his deputy, Sanjeev Kumar, were relieved from their duties and all exams that were to be conducted besides declaration of pending results were put on hold.

The additional deputy commissioner, Hamirpur, was appointed as the officer on special duty at the commission.

“To maintain transparency in the recruitment process, the state government is studying the national model of recruitment and appropriate decision will be made accordingly,” the chief minister said.

“The investigations have revealed that people were involved in the scam from top to bottom. If anyone has qualified the exams by adopting unfair means and has been appointed, they will be investigated and face action accordingly. Investigations are still on and we are unable to reveal much at this juncture. In two months, we have exposed those who used to deceive the youth of the state,” Sukhu said.

The examination of JOA (IT) scheduled for December 25 was cancelled after the paper leak was detected on December 23 when the vigilance arrested a senior assistant of the commission, Uma Azad, with a solved question paper and ₹2.5 lakh.

So far, eight people -- Uma Azad, her sons Nikhil Azad and Nitin Azad, tout Sanjeev and his brother Shashi Pal, Neeraj, Ajay Sharma, and Tanu Sharma have been arrested in the case. The chargesheet against them has been filed at the court of district and session judge, Hamirpur.

The forensic experts had found question papers, financial transactions, voice recordings and chats from the mobile phones, laptops, hard drives and personal gadgets of the people under scanner, which indicated that papers were leaked in the past too.