Ex-collector held in recruit scam case

Calcutta Telegraph: Bhubaneswar/Balangir: Saturday, 08 November 2014.

Vigilance officials today arrested former collector of Balangir DebrajMishra from his Kapil Prasad residence for his alleged involvement in a scam involving irregular appointments of revenue inspectors (RI), assistant RIs and amins during his tenure.

Mishra, who is undersuspension, had been the Balangir collector for 11 months from August 2012.On September 10 this year, he was suspended while holding the post of director of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC& ST) development department, following a crime branch probe into the scam. After his arrest, 58-year-old Mishra said he had become a victim of conspiracy and would make a detailed statement only in the court.

Sources said the Balangir district collector's office on December 17, 2011, had issued an advertisement, inviting applications from suitable candidates, who were residents of the district, for a competitive test to be held to recruit to the post of RIs, ARIs and amins.The advertisement was issued for 54 vacant posts in these categories.

The number of posts for recruitment in these categories was subsequently increased twice - first to 63 and then to 166 - after Mishra took over as the collector in August 2012. The second increase was effected through a letter just five days before the written examination, but no advertisements were issued in this regard nor were any fresh applications invited from the candidates. This, an official said, was in violation of the provisions that clearly stated that whenever there was an increase in the number of posts, advertisement should be placed in newspapers and fresh applications should be invited.

The state vigilance department, in an official release, said Mishra had formed a recruitment panel under his chairmanship. After recruitment on June 22, 2012, the list of selected candidates with places of postings was published under his signature.During verification of the examination papers, manipulation by way of addition or alternation, correction of marks in the answer sheets of 71 selected candidates was detected.

It came to light that the collector had even taken the answer sheets home. According to the information available under the RTI, some selected candidates had even got 100 out of 100 in the mathematics. Even candidates, who were originally awarded just two marks, were given 93 in a fraudulent manner.

"How can one get the maximum marks when he had given no correct answer?" asked Bipra Prasad Nanda, one of the candidates, who had sought information about the examination through an RTI application. "In some cases, the wrong answers had been scratched and replaced with correct answers to favourthe undeserving candidates," said Nanda.

Both the crime branch and the vigilance department investigated the case. The crime branch filed a case on September 10, 2013 in the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Balangir, against the collector, four OAS officers and a senior clerk for their alleged role in the scam.

The four OAS officers named in the case are Anita Panda, Binod Bihari Das, Raghunath Mundari and Ripunath Suna. The clerk concernedwas Niranjan Tripathy of the Balangir collectorate. The vigilance office in Sambalpur began its inquiry into the scam on March 3 this year and registered a case in this regard on September 30.

Following an uproar, the revenue divisional commissioner (north) had conducted an inquiry into the scam and was believed to have recommended a probe by the vigilance departments. Sudhir Sandh, one of the candidates, said: "All appointments made on the basis of the earlier test should be cancelled and fresh a examination should be held."