A video of torn and burnt copies of answer sheets of the assistant teachers’ recruitment examination held to fill thousands of posts in primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, under the scanner for alleged irregularities, is being widely shared on social media.
An official of the state education department said candidates protesting the alleged scam made the video at the Basic Shiksha Parishad’s office in Allahabad late on Sunday, which was then circulated on several social media platforms including WhatsApp.
“We have seen the video carefully and zoomed into some of the papers shown by candidates. These are photocopies of the answer sheets that were in excess. The original answer sheets are safe,” said an education department official.
The department made several photocopies of the answer sheets and other documents to be given to the three-member team probing the scam. Some of them were thrown away after they were found to be more than required.
“Every Saturday, we clean our desk and burn unnecessary papers,” the official quoted above said.
The scam blew up in the third week of August when a candidate Sonika Devi filed a writ petition in the Allahabad high court claiming her answer sheet had been replaced. A list featuring the names of 23 candidates surfaced during the recruitment process and out of which 21 had appeared in the exam and failed but were declared qualified. Similarly, two other candidates who had not even appeared in the exam were declared qualified.
{{/usCountry}}The scam blew up in the third week of August when a candidate Sonika Devi filed a writ petition in the Allahabad high court claiming her answer sheet had been replaced. A list featuring the names of 23 candidates surfaced during the recruitment process and out of which 21 had appeared in the exam and failed but were declared qualified. Similarly, two other candidates who had not even appeared in the exam were declared qualified.
{{/usCountry}}After the matter came to light, the department withheld the result of all such unqualified teachers. And the state government constituted a high-level committee to probe the irregularities in the recruitment exam for 68,500 posts and suspended Sutta Singh, a top official of the exam regulatory authority, and ordered disciplinary action against.
The secretary of Basic Shiksha Parishad, Sanjay Sinha, was also relieved of his charge and Ruby Singh, the additional education director in basic education directorate, was appointed in his place.
Disgruntled candidates, who did not make it to the final list, have demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter.
The exam was conducted on May 27, 2018, at 248 centres across 18 divisions of the state. The result was declared on August 13, 2018. The first district allocation list for counselling was announced on August 31 while the second district allocation list was declared on September 2.