CHIEF MINISTER CHALLENGES THE OPPOSITION –CALLS FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE ERRING PEOPLE, IMMEDIATE ACTION WILL BE TAKEN, WE HAVE FAITH IN CM’S HONESTY- OPPOSITION

Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the government is complying with the spirit of its slogan of recruiting according to merit. Those who indulge in corruption in recruitments will not be spared at all.

The State Vigilance Bureau has succeeded in nabbing the gang leaking competitive examination papers. An independent and impartial investigation is underway in the matter. If the opposition also has any information related to discrepancy in competitive examinations, then they should give it to the State Vigilance Bureau or the court so that immediate action can be taken and no one will be spared. The Chief Minister was replying to the adjournment motion on the second day of the winter session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

The Chief Minister was responding to the adjournment motion on the second day of the winter session of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The discussion on the proposal went on for more than 3 hours in which many members participated. Many members of opposition including the Congress mentioned during the discussions, that the Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal is honest, however, some people among the lower ranks are corrupt. They should not go unnoticed and should be investigated.

They said that the Chief Minister has taken the initiative to award jobs on merit, however, those who are using unfair means should be brought to book.

Responding to the adjournment motion the Chief Minister said that the opposition has been saying time and again that the Chief Minister is honest during their adjournment motion then why do they still have doubts. He thanked the opposition and said that the guilty will not be spared. We have complete faith in our investigation agencies.

Due to the misdeeds of one person the entire system cannot be blamed and those suspected will be rounded up. Haryana Government has recruited people to 84,000 posts without ‘Parchi Kharchi’ which include people from needy families. During previous governments people used to even sell their jewellery to buy jobs. But during the present government recruitments are being made on the basis of merit. The youth have faith in the government and the government intends to maintain it.

Haryana Public Service Commission is an autonomous body. The commission has a chairman and 5 members. Written examination is conducted by the commission for recruitment, in which complete transparency is maintained. So far no case of question paper leak has come to light in any written examination conducted by the commission. Advertisement for 155 posts of HCS (Executive Branch) and Other Allied Services 2021 was released on February 26, 2021.

A total of 1,48,262 candidates applied for these posts. The preliminary examination was conducted on September 12, 2021 in 535 examination centres located in 13 districts. The result of the preliminary examination was declared on September 24, 2021, in which 2041 candidates were shortlisted for the main examination. The advertisement for the 81 posts of Dental Surgeon was released on February 25, 2021. A total of 7,891 candidates applied for these posts. The written examination was conducted on September 26, 2021 in 29 examination centres located in Panchkula. The result of the written examination was declared on November 10, 2021. In which total 220 candidates were shortlisted for interview.

ON RECEIVING THE COMPLAINT, STATE VIGILANCE BUREAU NAB THE ACCUSED

On November 17, 2021, a case was registered under various sections of the Haryana Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act on the complaint of Narendra's son Balraj Singh resident of Daulatpur, Hisar in the Police Station Panchkula of the State Vigilance Bureau. The complainant alleged that Naveen, a resident of Bhiwani, had demanded money for getting the candidates selected in the Dental Surgeon Recruitment Examination conducted by HPSC on November 26, 2021.

Sombir, an acquaintance of the complainant, contacted Naveen in this regard. Naveen demanded Rs 35-40 lakh per candidate stating that Sombir should not be associated with any candidate, MP, MLA or member of HPSC. Then Naveen got his two candidates included in the examination. After the exam, Naveen told him that only one candidate, Dalbir, had passed the exam. The other attempted too many questions and hence the OMR sheet could not be manipulated to his advantage. After Dalbir's name appeared in the selection list, Naveen demanded money from him.

Sombir struck a deal with Naveen for Rs 20 lakh, the conversation of which he recorded. Narendra contacted the State Vigilance Bureau. Naveen son of Pradeep Kumar resident of village Khot, Bhiwani was caught taking Rs 20 lakh in a trap set up by SVB. Based on the confession of Naveen Kumar and other evidence found during the investigation, the State Vigilance Bureau arrested Ashwini Sharma son of Pradeep, a resident of Jamalpur village in Jhajjar district and recovered a cash amount of Rs 1,07,97,000 from his house during the search.

VIGILANCE BUREAU ARRESTED NAGAR

After interrogation of Ashwini Sharma, it was found that this money was to be given to HCS Anil Nagar, Deputy Secretary, Haryana Public Service Commission. Ashwini spoke to Nagar who asked him to pay the money at his HPSC office. The conversation was recorded and when Nagar took money from Ashwini at his HPSC office on November 18, 2021, he was arrested by the State Vigilance Bureau. During searches at Nagar's residence, Rs 12 lakh in cash was recovered. On interrogation, Nagar admitted that he had kept the money with his associate Ashish Garg. Rs 2.10 crore in cash was recovered from his associate.

Thus, a total of Rs 3.5 crore cash has been recovered in the investigation process so far. Besides, a handwritten list of roll numbers of HCS exam was recovered from Nagar's possession.

It contained the roll numbers of the successful candidates. Nagar said that to avoid doubts, he asked for random checking of OMR sheets on the pretext of verifying the correctness of scanning and ensured that the list contained the roll numbers of the candidates the scores of whom were to be changed. During interrogation of the three accused, it has been found that around 30-32 candidates were involved in this. Of these, 5 out of 13-15 HCS candidates passed. Out of 17 candidates for dental surgeon, 13 passed. Nagar called for the answer sheets of the agreed candidates and re-scanned the sheets after modifying the answers.

The interrogation of the accused revealed that Anil Nagar had hired Ashwini (Paru Data Solutions Pvt Ltd) for scanning the OMR sheets for HCS Preliminary and Dental Surgeon examinations. Ashwini contacted Naveen, who contacted the candidates. The money trail confirms the three main accused persons, in which the entire amount of Rs 3.5 crore was recovered from their possession.

The investigation revealed that the work for the two examinations, which is under investigation in the ongoing case, was entrusted to M/s Paru Data Solutions Pvt Ltd owned by accused Ashwini and was done by him and not Jasbir Singh who owns M/s Safedot Solutions Pvt Ltd.

The State Vigilance Bureau conducted searches at all suspicious places including the office of accused Anil Nagar at HPSC Office, Panchkula on November 22, 2021, in the presence of HPSC officials and the original OMR sheets of the suspected candidates for HCS Preliminary Examination and Dental Surgeon Examination (both conducted under Nagar) were confiscated.

Digital video recorders containing CCTV footage and other digital media were also provided to the State Vigilance Bureau team by the HPSC officials. He also provided all other records as demanded by the State Vigilance Bureau. The three accused were produced before the court on November 23, 2021 and remanded to judicial custody. Other officers including the Chairman and Secretary of HPSC are being regularly involved in the investigation.

The OMR sheets and digital media received from HPSC have been sent to Criminology Laboratory for forensic examination. Notices have been sent to the suspected candidates and some of them have joined the investigation. Other suspected candidates are also in the process of joining the probe to ascertain their role and assess the extent of their involvement.

THE POST OF DEPUTY SECRETARY WAS CREATED IN HPSC IN 2014.

The Chief Minister said that the post of Deputy Secretary in the Commission was created with effect from February 21, 2014 and since then HCS officers have been appointed by the Government to this post. Keeping in view the workload, the confidential work related to each recruitment was assigned by the Chairman to one of these officers. This process has been going on since 2014.

The investigation so far has not revealed whether the guilty have been able to falsify the HCS preliminary examination conducted by the HPSC and any other examination other than the Dental Surgeon examination. Further investigation is proceeding in the HPSC case.

THE POST OF DEPUTY SECRETARY WAS CREATED IN HPSC IN 2014.

The Chief Minister said that the post of Deputy Secretary in the Commission was created with effect from February 21, 2014 and since then HCS officers have been appointed by the Government to this post. Keeping in view the workload, the confidential work related to each recruitment was assigned by the Chairman to one of these officers. This process has been going on since 2014.

CONFIDENTIAL WORK WAS NOT ASSIGNED ON THE REQUEST OF THE SECRETARY

The Chief Minister said that the secret work of various recruitments has been assigned from time to time to the previously posted Deputy Secretaries. The confidential work related to the recruitment of HCS and other allied services 2021 and Dental Surgeon 2021 was entrusted to the then Deputy Secretary. The confidential work relating to the above recruitments was not assigned to the Secretary as his family members were the candidates in these recruitments and he had requested that in the interest of transparency and fairness, confidential work should not be assigned to him.

WORK IS DELEGATED TO AGENCIES SO THAT THE RECRUITMENT IS COMPLETED IN A TIME BOUND MANNER:  There are many activities involved in the conduct of the written examination. Keeping in view the available staff and infrastructure in the Commission and to complete the recruitments in a time bound manner, some work is delegated to outside agencies. This process has been going on since 2014. Other public service commissions, recruitment agencies and universities are also taking such services from outside agencies.

Similarly, services of external agencies are also taken in other departments of the government. M/s Safedot E-Solutions Pvt Ltd. was not enlisted for inviting applications for HCS Preliminary Examination and Dental Surgeon Examination. Earlier the commission had allotted work related to inviting online application form to M/s Safedot E-Solution Pvt. Ltd. on April 25, 2013.

Thereafter vide letter dated September 3, 2019, the services of the said company were terminated on the ground that its work is not satisfactory and it causes delay in urgent works. The confidential work of the 10 posts whose candidates were called for document verification from December 21, 2021 to December 27, 2021 was not handed over to the then Deputy Secretary. The record of these 10 posts was also not with the Deputy Secretary. The decision regarding blacklisting the scanning agency and the above two written examinations will be taken by the Commission after receiving the report / information from the Haryana State Vigilance Bureau.

SCRUTINY OF OMR SHEETS LEFT BLANK

The Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the Haryana Staff Selection Commission itself has sent the OMR sheets to the police for verification. The State Vigilance Bureau has not conducted any investigation and no document / OMR sheet was given by HSSC to Vigilance Bureau. However HSSC itself has prepared a list of OMR sheets left blank by the candidates in the examinations conducted during the period from July 16, 2021 to September 26, 2021 and this list was sent to the Director General of Police, Haryana to inquire into the matter regarding the blank OMR sheet and to identify the persons who were misleading the candidates to keep the OMR sheet blank without solving the questions. The Chief Minister explained in detail the entire process from exam to result.

However, giving a befitting reply to the opposition on the adjournment motion, the Chief Minister, said that many recruitments in the previous governments were also cancelled by the High Court. There was a lot of news of nepotism in the recruitment of HCS post during the Congress tenure. There was an uproar when one of the selected 25 HCS had connections with some minister or leader.

While responding during the session the Chief Minister said that when most of the members of the opposition believe in my honesty, then they should retain faith. The investigation in this matter will be transparent and unbiased. The government has been making recruitments on basis of merit and not ‘Parchi Kharchi’.