Hindustan
Times: New Delhi/Bhopal: Monday, 14 December 2015.
An RTI
activist has demanded that the CBI probe into the Vyapam scam also extend to
admissions to the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, through the
Professional Examination Board, between 2001 and 2007.
The scam,
which adversely affected the career of thousands of candidates in admission and
recruitment tests such as the PMT, Pre-PG (medical), tests to recruit
contractual teachers, constables and forest guards, among others, might also
have touched admissions to the NLIU since they were also done through Vyapam
from 2001 to 2007, the activist fears.
The reply to
an RTI query says that the MPPEB, which conducted admission tests for the NLIU
since its inception in 1997, had removed the names of those in the merit list
between 2001 and 2007 and had left only the roll numbers. This was done to
protect beneficiaries, who include the children of certain high-profile people,
the RTI activist Ajay Dubey has alleged.
The merit
lists of pre-BA LLB (Hons) entrance test from 2000 to 2007 -- obtained through
an RTI application in November by Dubey from the MPPEB -- show that in 2000,
the names of the candidates were mentioned on the list along with their roll
numbers. But from 2001 till 2007, only the roll numbers were displayed, the RTI
reply said.
“Vyapam
conducted admission tests for NLIU till 2007. From 2008, the admission test for
the law institute came under Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). The general
practice is to put out the names of the candidates and their father’s name on
the merit list. They removed the names of the candidates from the list after
2000 because they didn’t want to disclose their identities. This gave a strong
impression of how recommendations of influential people were considered in the selection
of candidates. And all possible efforts were made to hide their identities,”
Dubey said.
Meanwhile,
the MP government auditor had earlier raised objections related to inflated
travel expenses by experts hired by the MPPEB for an examination in 2006-07 and
had called for expeditious investigations, a reply to an RTI plea received
earlier this year had stated.
The local
fund audit had also raised objection to the reprinting of 200,000 answer sheets
for the Women and Child Development Examination that was conducted two months
earlier, causing a loss of `2,62,350.
More than
1,000 financial irregularities related to the MPPEB have been reported since
1970, to which objections were raised by the state’s audit teams.
The state has
been mired in the Vyapam scam for years, but the irregularities eventually came
to light when 20 people were arrested in 2013 for impersonating candidates
appearing for the 2009 medical entrance examination.
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