A recruitment scam where more people were hired against the sanctioned and advertised posts under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) during two separate years in Ferozepur has been unearthed with a crimnal case set to be filed against five errant officials of the Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Department.
The department has written to the Ferozepur district police chief to register a criminal FIR against the five officers, including an Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC).
The Rural Development Department, which unearthed the scam, has issued a chargesheet against three officials for recruiting excess candidates without advertisement and without getting requisite sanction, tampering the answer sheets, selecting candidates who were absent during the recruitment exams and also adjusting those who had never applied for the posts.
Also showcause notices have been issued to 22 excess candidates hired.
Three candidates, including two gram rozgar sevaks (GRS) – Gurpreet Singh and Jaswinder Singh — and one assistant block coordinator — Sameer Sharma — have been terminated from the service after it was found they never appeared for the exam.
Secretary Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, Rahul Bhandhari, told The Indian Express said that they have received the inquiry report and written to SSP, Ferozepur, for filing an FIR while chargesheet has been filed against three officials and three candidates have been terminated. He also said that they are also looking at the recruitment under the Scheme in other districts too.
With this around half a dozen more districts including Gurdaspur, Mukatsar, Moga, Bathinda, and Faridkot are also under scanner.
The probe report
According to a 28-page inquiry report (a copy of which is with The Indian Express), the recruitment committee comprised Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu, ADC (Development); Harpal Singh, District Welfare Officer; Gurmeet Singh Dhillon, deputy CEO; Anil Palta, district informatics officer; Rajesh Kansal, XEN, Panchayati Raj Department; and Ramandeep Sachdeva district coordinator. MGNREGS — all posted in Ferozepur.
The department has now asked the SSP, Ferozepur, to file an FIR against Sandhu, Harpal Singh, Dhillon, Palta, and Kansal. This after a departmental chargesheet was issued against Sandhu, Dhillon and Kansal whose statements have also been recorded.
The probe was ordered by joint development Commissioner-cum-Commissio-ner, MGNREGS, Punjab.
Paramvir Singh, ADC-D, Bathinda, who later was appointed as Additional Managing Director, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation probed the matter and and submitted his report to the department on February 3, 2022.
The case
The illegitimate recruitments took place in the year 2018-19 and 2020-21.
The inquiry found that 23 vacancies were advertised for the recruitment in the department in 2018-19. These included one post for assistant coordinator grievance at block level in general category, four posts each of computer assistant and accounts assistant, two posts of technical assistant, and 12 of Gram Rozgar Sevaks (GRS).
However, against the sanctioned posts, 44 candidates were recruited.
Similarly, in 2020–21, the advertised 14 vacancies, including two computer assistants, four technical assistants, two assistant programme officers, five data entry operators and one each social audit coordinator and assistant coordinator grievances at block level. Later, 15 were hired.
Over these two years, 22 extra posts without advertisement and prior sanction were filled.
Inquiry officer has now recommended action under Section 420, 468, 120 (B) of the IPC against the officials involved and also ordered cancellation of all excess recruitments.
The wrongdoings
The probe revealed tampering of answersheets. Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Punjab, found mismatch on various parameters viz. letter, shape, size and geometrical proportions of the answer sheets of 22 wrongly ‘selected’ candidates. It was found that the final merit list was also tampered with after it was printed.
The FSL examination said, “Official examinees were unable to provide any clear information on who was in charge of the custody of these papers in the intervening period when the answer sheets were marked by candidates in the examination hall and when they were finally checked by the examiners. In fact, there is no such record available.”
The probe report pointed out that “loose sheets stapled together as answer sheets” could have been easily tampered.
It found that in the final merit list, the word ‘waiting’ was simply overwritten with the word ‘selected’.
The overwriting was not found to be legally validated by the members of the recruitment committee. The probe report says that entire recruitment process was marred by foul play on part of concerned officials.
Two candidates — Gurpreet Singh and Sameer Sharma — were allegedly allotted fictitious roll numbers. Their fake roll numbers were added at the end of the original attendance sheet and they even made it to the final merit list of selected candidates.
Among other irregularities, during 2018-19 a computer assistant job candidate, Jagdeep Kaur, was awarded 6 marks for Additional Qualification (MCA) while other candidates awarded 5 marks for same qualification. Kaur was selected.