Mallika Dureja
On Tuesday, Himachal government including chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu abolished the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission in Hamirpur, whose operations had been suspended within three days after a paper leak was discovered in December of last year.
For the convenience of candidates, the Himachal government has chosen to shift the existing recruitment process from the commission until further arrangements are made.
“Employees of the Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission have been shifted to the excess pool, and they will have the option to join new departments,” Sukhu added.
“As a result of the findings of the departmental investigation and the vigilance bureau investigation, which revealed irregularities and established that papers were leaked and sold to select individuals for the past three years, the state government has decided to dissolve the staff selection body immediately,” he added.
On December 26, Sukhu suspended the commission’s operations and ordered an investigation.
The commission’s secretary, Jitender Kumar, and his deputy, Sanjeev Kumar, were dismissed of their roles, and all upcoming examinations were suspended, with the exception of the announcement of pending results.
The extra deputy commissioner of Hamirpur was designated as the commission’s officer on special duty.
“In order to ensure transparency in the recruitment process, the state government is examining the national model of recruitment, and a decision will be taken accordingly,” stated the chief minister.
“Investigations have found that the entire organisation was complicit in the fraud. If somebody passed the examinations via unfair means and was afterwards hired, they will be investigated and punished accordingly. Due to ongoing investigations, we cannot provide anything at this time. In two months, we have exposed those who deceived the state’s youth, stated Sukhu.
The JOA (IT) test slated for December 25 was cancelled after a paper leak was discovered on December 23, when a senior assistant of the commission, Uma Azad, was apprehended with a solved question paper and 2.5 lakh.
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Uma Azad, her sons Nikhil Azad and Nitin Azad, tout Sanjeev and his brother Shashi Pal, Neeraj, Ajay Sharma, and Tanu Sharma have been detained thus far in connection with the crime. The complaint against them was filed with the court of the district and session judge in Hamirpur.
The forensic experts discovered question papers, financial transactions, audio recordings, and chats on the mobile phones, laptops, hard drives, and personal devices of the individuals under investigation, indicating that papers had also been leaked in the past.
