Taking part in the debate on the adjournment motion, Forest Minister Gaurishankar Shejwar said that lot of things are being said about the scam but the fact is that in the last seven years 1.27 lakh posts were filled through MPPEB in which over 1.23 crore candidates had appeared. Out of this, irregular appointments were made only in 223 posts which is only .001 per cent of the total recruitment and the Opposition is terming it as a "mega scam", the Minister said.
“Similarly, for the educational institutions, a total of 70 exams were conducted by MPPEB in the last seven years and out of 25,84,000 candidates, 7,27,000 were selected. Among them admissions of 293 candidates in government colleges and 131 in private ones were found to be irregular and it was being alleged that a very big scam took place,” he said.
Kailash Vijayvargiya pointed out that the Chief Minister, on the basis of an anonymous complaint in Indore about the scam
constituted a Special Task Force (STF) to probe it even as the High Court while disposing of petitions demanding a CBI probe into the matter had found the STF probe satisfactory and has started monitoring the investigations.
Amid continuous interventions from both sides, the debate continued till the House adjourned for the lunch. Earlier this month, over 100 students who allegedly cleared the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) through unfair means were arrested by the Special Task Force from different districts of Madhya Pradesh in connection with the scam.
The PMT was conducted by MPPEB whose top officials were already arrested by STF since the scam surfaced in 2013. The STF, which is probing the matter had arrested former State Technical Education minister and BJP leader laxmikant Sharma on June 15 for his alleged involvement in the contractual teachers recruitment scam. The contractual teachers examination too was conducted by the MPPEB.