Lucknow: Several candidates at two examination centres with the exact same marks, a topper who couldn’t name India’s President and a plethora of arrests for alleged cheating — rampant irregularities in the recruitment process for 69,000 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh have put the Yogi Adityanath government on the back foot in the state.
Under fire, the Adityanath government has constituted a Special Task Force (STF) to investigate allegations of large-scale rigging in the examinations for teacher posts in the state’s primary schools. But that hasn’t stopped the opposition from terming the fiasco as “UP’s Vyapam”, a reference to the medical recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh.
“The scam in recruitment of 69,000 teachers is UP’s Vyapam scam,” tweeted senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “The facts related to irregularities in this case are not common. Diary entries related to student names, monetary transactions, large-scale manipulation in examination centers etc. indicate the involvement of an entire racket in this scandal. All of this also shows that its links are connected to many (higher) places.”
69000 शिक्षक भर्ती घोटाला उप्र का व्यापम घोटाला है। इस मामले में गड़बड़ी के तथ्य सामान्य नहीं हैं। डायरियों में स्टूडेंट्स के नाम, पैसे का लेनदेन, परीक्षा केंद्रों में बड़ी हेरफेर, इन गड़बड़ियों में रैकेट का शामिल होना – ये सब दर्शाता है कि इसके तार काफी जगहों पर जुड़े हैं। 1/2
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) June 8, 2020
The entire saga has also left many candidates furious. One of them told ThePrint that there had been massive rigging. “A big cheating mafia might be behind all this. There is also a big possibility about complicity of officials from the education department,” said the candidate, who did not want to be named. “Rigging on such a mammoth scale cannot take place without official collusion.”
The government, however, has got some respite. The Allahabad High Court Friday partially lifted the interim stay it had earlier ordered in the case. The court has now allowed the Yogi administration to go ahead with the recruitment process in line with the Supreme Court ruling in the case.
The Supreme Court had on 9 June stayed the recruitment of 37,339 of the 69,000 vacancies but allowed the government to fill up the remaining 31,661 seats.
On its part, the UP government has accused “some people of stalling the recruitment process by indulging in politics”.
Speaking in Prayagraj, Basic Education Minister Satish Kumar Dwivedi said so far 11 accused have also been apprehended. “Some people are trying to stall the recruitment process by indulging in politics because they cannot digest such a clean recruitment process,” he told the media.
“The Yogi government is following a zero tolerance policy on corruption. Even in this case strict action, including many arrests, has been taken. Now the entire investigation has been handed over to the STF and soon the entire truth in the matter will be revealed to the public.”
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Exam hit by controversy from the start
According to local media reports, several candidates at two examination centres in Prayagraj ended up with the exact same marks. Three members of the same family also allegedly ended up with exactly similar marks.
The STF and the local police have since made several arrests — among them is Prayagraj resident Dharmendra Patel, the topper of the exam.
According to the Prayagraj Police, Patel had obtained 142 marks out of the maximum 150 but during interrogation he could not even name the President of India. The police also said some of the candidates had paid Rs 8-10 lakh to middlemen who enabled the cheating process.
Prayagraj ASP K.V. Ashok told the media that police have conducted raids at many places based on information in a diary that belonged to one of the accused. “An intensive search is going on for many candidates on the basis of names and roll numbers recorded in the diary. There is a possibility that an entire syndicate might be behind all this,” ASP Ashok said.
The police are yet to determine how exactly the cheating occurred — others appeared for the candidates or officials in the education department were paid off to rig the scores.
The scandal, however, is the latest controversy to dog the exam that has been mired in one row after the other.
It started in December 2018, when the Yogi government announced it was looking to fill 69,000 vacancies for assistant teachers in the state’s primary schools. All those who had B.Ed, a Basic Training Certificate (BTC) and Teacher Eligibility Training (TET) degrees were eligible to appear.
On 6 January 2019, about 4 lakh candidates appeared in the written examination. A day later, the government announced the cut-off parameters — candidates from the general category had to secure 97 (65%) of the total 150 marks while in the case of the reserved category, the cut-off was 90.
But claiming that the cut-off marks were too high, some candidates moved the Allahabad High Court. A single-judge bench then fixed the cut-off at 45 per cent for the general category and 40 per cent for the reserved category.
On 2 May 2019, the Yogi government appealed against the single-judge bench verdict. On 6 May, 2020, an HC division bench granted relief to the Yogi government, allowing it to resume the recruitment process on the basis of cut-off marks decided by it.
Following this, the government began the counselling process.
But in the interim, some other candidates approached the high court again with a plea that four questions in the examination paper were wrong. Entertaining their pleas, the court in the first week of June ordered an interim stay on the recruitment process.
Some candidates then approached the Supreme Court against the division bench verdict. Hearing their plea, the top court on 9 June allowed the recruitment process for 37,339 posts.
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Govt cheated hard-working candidates: Opposition
The opposition is now alleging that the government has cheated hardworking candidates by delaying the process by over a year.
In another tweet, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shared a clip from a local channel saying lakhs of youths appeared in the exam with high hopes of getting jobs and waited for an entire year.
“On the other hand, a mega scandal continued right under the nose of the BJP government. People dominating the system collaborated to allow it,” she tweeted. “It was kept under wraps for an entire year. Now the government will have to answer all those hardworking candidates who appeared in the exam and also to those who cleared it.”
लाखों युवाओं ने परीक्षा दी।
लाखों ने नौकरी की आस लगाई।
लाखों ने साल भर इंतजार किया।
भाजपा सरकार की नाक तले ये महाघोटाला सिस्टम में बैठे लोगों की साँठगाँठ से होता रहा। साल भर इसे दबाए रखा।
अब सरकार को परीक्षा में शामिल हुए मेहनती छात्रों व सफल हुए लोगों को जवाब देना ही होगा। pic.twitter.com/tWXcNBJMZA
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) June 11, 2020
The channel has also claimed that a private company, which scanned the answer sheets, is a big player in the scandal and facilitated the rigging.
Congress MLC Deepak Singh told ThePrint that candidates appearing were cheated and alleged that a large network is operating in the education department across the state. “All this is happening right under the government’s nose and the chief minister remains silent. Congress is raising this issue vigorously to ensure justice (for the candidates). This is a scam just like Vyapam,” he said.
Former CM Akhilesh Yadav has blamed the Yogi government for stalling the recruitment process, while BSP supremo Mayawati has asked for a CBI investigation in the matter.
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