Hindustan Times: Bhopal: Sunday, March 18, 2018.
The two
departments responsible for medial education in the state the Madhya Pradesh
professional examination board (MPPEB), popularly known as Vyapam, and the
directorate of medial education (DME) appear to be engaged in a blame game over
a letter from 2014 which had reportedly “exposed” a development that later grew
on to take shape of the wide-ranging “scam”.
At the heart
of the controversy is the fate of a letter written by then MPPEB director Tarun
Pithode on July 8, 2014 to the directorate, pointing out the modus operandi
undertaken in the pre-medical test (PMT) row.
The exam was
conducted by the Vyapam that year.
Pithode had
referred to documents that showed 88 PMT candidates in 2012 and 119 in 2013
getting selected for admission into private medical colleges through state
quota, but not going through with the admission, thereby facilitating a
scenario where the seats were sold by the colleges to the highest bidder.
It was this
aspect that the CBI, while probing the alleged scam, unearthed and took
cognisance of to register cases and make subsequent arrests of directors and
owners of several private medical colleges in the state.
The letter,
which should have alerted the DME about a possible anomaly, reportedly never
reached its office, the directorate has claimed. The MPPEB claimed the letter
was delivered in 2017, three years after it was written.
The DME,
writing to the information commission, said that the receipt of the letter
shown by the Vyapam was “forged”, and that there was no corresponding entry in
its records.
The state
information commissioner noted in its order in an RTI questionnaire that had
this 2014 letter reached on time, the damage caused by the “scam” could have
been “contained”.
MPPEB
chairman Deepak Khandekar said, “ I have no idea about it (the letter). All
correspondence comes to the director, and not to me, and the letters are sent
by the director.”
MPPEB
director Chandra Mohan Thakur refused to take calls and responded to a text,
saying, “Please ask the public relations officer for comments.”
Public
relations officer Alok Verma said, “Yes, this appears to be a serious matter,
but I don’t know anything about it. I will find out and let you know.” When
contacted on Friday morning, he did not answer the call and left a message, “I
am at a meeting.”
DME officials
were equally evasive. Commissioner SS Shukla, from whose office the letter was
written to the information commissioner, said, “I have no idea, all matters
relating to RTI is dealt by the director.”
Director,
DME, Ulka Shrivastava said, “We replied that we had not received any letter
from Vyapam, which is the fact. I can’t comment on Vyapam’s contention that we
had received letter in 2017. May be it was their carelessness or their
ignorance that made them furnish a forged document.” Asked why no action had
been initiated against Vyapam officials for forging document, she said, “We do
not have concrete details. If this escalates and damages our image further we
will take the necessary action.”
.JPG)
.JPG)
