New Delhi (Agency): On Friday, India’s opposition Congress Party insisted on a legal or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into suspected fraud in the ‘patwari’ (revenue department staff) recruitment exam in Madhya Pradesh. The request came despite Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s recent decision to halt the hiring of successful candidates.
A leader from the Congress Party in Indore brought the case to the Madhya Pradesh High Court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The person wants a full investigation into the alleged wrongdoings.
The exam, managed by the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, happened on April 26. The results were announced in May and June. But questions arose when a media report claimed that seven out of ten successful candidates took the exam at the same center. Interestingly, this center is allegedly located in a college owned by a legislator from the BJP, the ruling party.
The Congress Party also brought up another concern. They claimed that eight out of ten successful candidates were from Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior-Chambal region.
“We want the government to cancel the April 26 exam. A new exam should be held, and candidates should not have to pay any fees. We want a Central Bureau of Investigation or High Court judicial investigation,” Jitu Patwari, a Congress MLA and former state minister, told reporters.
Patwari questioned why the BJP legislator’s house, where the alleged irregularities occurred, had not been investigated. He argued that numerous recruitment exams since 2007 were flawed. According to him, just changing the name of Vyapam, a body notorious for a recruitment scam a decade ago, will not be enough.
Patwari also claimed that the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, rich with funds of about Rs 775 crore, is involved in wrongdoings too. If the Congress Party comes to power in the forthcoming Assembly elections, he promised that candidates will not have to pay fees for exams conducted by the Board.
Raghunandan Singh Parmar, another Congress leader, has filed a public interest litigation in the Indore branch of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Parmar’s lawyer, Rohit Sharma, stated that the litigation requested an investigation into the patwari recruitment exam by a retired or sitting judge.
According to Sharma, the exam was a huge scam. Seven out of ten top performers took the test at the same center in Gwalior, where 114 candidates have been selected.
In related news, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Congress leaders, recently tweeted about the alleged fraud. They accused the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government of ruining the future of youth and avoiding an investigation. Protests have been held at various locations, demanding the cancellation of the exam and a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.