New Delhi:
Complaints of irregularities and crooked deals in the pre-medical test in Madhya Pradesh have been surfacing since 2009, but the mother of all scams — Vyapam — was unearthed in 2013 and involved several officials and politicians.
Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, also known by its Hindi name Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal (Vyapam), is a self-financed and autonomous body incorporated by the state government. It is entrusted with the responsibility to conduct large-scale competitive tests for admission to various professional courses and recruitment to government jobs.
The Vyapam scam involved collusion among exam candidates, government officials and middle-men, wherein undeserving candidates were offered high marks in the exams in exchange of kickbacks.
The kingpin of the racket, Dr Jagdish Sagar was charged and subsequently, several other influential people were arrested including ex-Education Minister, Laxmikant Sharma.
The Enforcement Directorate has charged 720 parents and students, and more than 129 politicians, officials and middlemen have already been arrested.
Similarly, another such scam was unearthed in February when aspirants had gathered at a college ground in Rajkot in Gujarat where the Army was holding a recruitment camp.
The Army got to know that there were a few people who did not belong to Gujarat but were enrolled as Gujaratis. The Army investigated 55 suspicious people and found out that none of them belonged to Gujarat. The Army even took the state government’s help and it was confirmed that 49 of the 55 were fake Gujaratis.
With high demand for Information Techonology-related jobs in the city and the Middle East, Hyderabad has now become the hub for job frauds and online employment scams.
While well-educated scamsters are duping unemployed graduates of thousands of rupees by promising jobs in top IT companies, conmen in the old city are taking Muslim youths for a ride by assuring them jobs in the Middle East.
According to the Hyderabad Police, cyber crimes showed an almost 350 per cent increase from 47 cases in 2012, to 162 cases in 2013. Last year, 170 such cases were registered.
In June, 2008, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and 53 others were charged in connection with the appointment of 3,216 unqualified Junior Basic Teachers during 1999-2000. In January 2013, a New Delhi court sentenced Chautala and his son, Ajay Singh Chautala, to ten years in jail.
In 2008, the Bihar state government sacked 15,000 teachers for submitting fake degrees and certificates for recruitment in state-run schools. The sacked teachers were appointed a year before as part of a recruitment drive.
As many as 1,400 primary teachers resigned last week from service in Bihar fearing government action over the possession of fake educational degrees. More teachers are expected to resign in the coming days after a Patna High Court order asked those possessing fake educational degrees to quit their jobs on their own to avoid legal action.
