India Today: New Delhi: Friday,
March 24, 2017.
They did not
use cheat sheets. Instead, over 50 applicants for government jobs sent in
surrogates to take the recruitment test in Haryana.
In response
to an RTI application that was stalled several times before, the Central
Information Commissioner (CIC) on Thursday ordered a probe into the matter, to
be conducted by the highest office of the Employees' State Insurance
Corporation (ESIC).
A report has
to be submitted within two months. "It is shocking that the department
tried to stonewall the information sought by the petitioner even though he had
presented enough proof," said CIC Madabhushi Sridhar Acharyulu.
"I was
surprised that people didn't even bother to inquire into these allegations of
impersonation despite the fact that 11 separate RTIs were filed and the
appellant had provided names and particulars of all the 11 accused of
impersonation. Today 11 such cases of impersonation were put up in front of me,
but the RTI also suggests that there are 52 cases in total. The appellant said
that 800 such cases are there across the country."
The
recruitment examination comprised a written test and one in computer skills.
Gurugram-based Right to Information activist Harinder Dhingra, who is the
petitioner in the case, told Mail Today that he was shocked to find that
signatures on the admit card and attendance sheet in the written exam of the
these candidates, who later were appointed as lower division clerks, were
"quite different" from the signatures of those who sat the exam on
September 20, 2009.
NEARLY
1000 SUCH CASES ACROSS INDIA
"It is
clear that those who took the exam were not appointed as LDC in ESIC," said
Dhingra. "Now the truth regarding this scam is sure to come out after so
many years in which these forgers and impersonators have not only flourished on
public exchequer, but some of them have also been promoted and become
inspectors. While I have dug up over 50 such cases so far, the total number
across India is sure to touch a thousand. While the Haryana chapter is closed,
I am preparing to file RTI pleas in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh where such
cases are suspected."
The ESIC is
an autonomous corporation by a statutory creation under the Centre's ministry
of labour and employment. Dhingra had sought information on February 25, 2016,
about the selection of several selected personnel as LDC in a test conducted in
Faridabad by the ESIC on September 20, 2009. He had asked for the admit cards
to the exam, the attendance sheets, entrance permission/card, marks obtained in
the "computer skill test" along with thumb impressions.
"The
CPIO (Central Public Information Officer) refused to provide me the information
seeking exemption under article 8 (1) of the RTI Act-2005," said Dhingra.
"I again filed an appeal before first appellate authority who ordered the
CPIO on May 31, 2016, that information be provided to me. I was supplied in
September last year all the info except the thumb impression of the candidates
who appeared in the exam."
.JPG)
.JPG)
