Meanwhile, a latest investigation by the Special Task Force (STF) of Madhya Pradesh police has bared a scam in the State Public Service Commission (PSC), which is a Constitutional body. The STF has arrested the Controller of Examinations of the PSC. The controller is alleged to have sold the question papers for the written examination for recruitment of Ayurvedic doctors for government hospitals. The post of Ayurvedic doctors is a class two, gazetted one. It is alleged that question papers were sold for a hefty sum of Rs. six lakh each.

Besides Ayurved doctors, the selection of government college teachers has also come under cloud. Investigation has been initiated to determine the extent of irregularities in the selection of college teachers.

Meanwhile, it is claimed that the Professional Examination Board (PEB) scam may turn out to be one of the biggest education scams in the country. As many as 300 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the scam for helping the candidates, in one way or the other, to fraudulently crack the recruitment tests and entrance examinations in return for money.

Candidates, their kin who paid money for their selection, the middlemen and top official of the board are among those arrested.

The investigation was started after irregularities surfaced in the Pre-Medical Test, conducted by the PEB. Soon, it was revealed that almost all the examinations conducted by the PEB in the recent years were rigged. These included pre-PG (medical) and Pre-Engineering admission tests and the exams held for recruitment of police sub-inspectors, contractual teachers, forest guards and police constables among others.

Many big fish have been caught so far and sent to jail on judicial custody. Trials are on in all the cases that were registered by the STF and further investigation is being monitored by the state High Court.

Besides, many more have been questioned for their role in the racket. Among those who have been questioned include Laxmikant Sharma.

Sharma was a very powerful minister in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan ministry, prior to the November 2013 elections. Sharma was holding the departments of Higher Education, Technical education and Public Relations. The Technical Education department is the parent department of the PEB. The possibility of Sharma’s arrest is not being ruled out. Sharma, reportedly, has told his close associates that if he was sent to jail, he would ensure that many more ministers too may meet the same fate.

Those who are already in jail include Pankaj Trivedi, former director of the professional Board, OP Shukla, officer on Special Duty to former Minister Laxmikant Sharma, RK Shivhare, Deputy Inspector General of police, Dr. Ajay Shankar Mehta, former vice-chairman of Jan Abhiyan Parishad, who enjoyed the rank of Minister of State, Rashpal Singh Yadav, an officer of the state police service, Nitin Mahendra, Principal System Analyst in the computer section of the Board, Vinod Bhandari, Chairman and Managing director of the Aurobindo Medical College, Indore and Sanjeev Saxena, a Congress leader who contested the November 2013 election from one of the Bhopal seats. He is also the chief of a private college.

After it was discovered that they had secured place in the merit list fraudulently, the names of many medical students have been struck off the rolls of Medical colleges and they have been sent to jail along with their fathers. Similarly, those who fraudulently got jobs in the police and other departments have been sacked. Many of the students thrown out of the medical colleges were in the final year of the MBBS course. The most surprising aspect of this mega scam is this that despite it, the ruling BJP not only retained power for the third consecutive term but also managed to win 27 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Both the verdicts compel us to think that either corruption does not bother the voters or else they appreciate the BJP government for giving a freehand to the police to prove the scam and punish the guilty. (IPA Service)