leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra’s allegation last week in the in the State Assembly that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is misleading the House over the appointment of Assistant Executive Engineers (AEEs) was vindicated when the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) on Tuesday directed the State Government and the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to prepare a fresh list of selected candidates removing all anomalies.
A Division Bench of the tribunal comprising Acting Chairman BK Das and Administrative Member SK Das asked the Government as well as to the OPSC to issue appointment orders to selected candidates after preparing a fresh selection list in accordance to the direction given by the tribunal within two months.
Quashing the corrigendum to the advertisements made by the OPSC, the SAT ordered the commission to prepare merit list in respect of the candidates, who had applied and appeared the recruitment examination pursuant to the first advertisement made in April 17, 2015 without giving any age relaxation as per the corrigendum and restricting the reservation limit to 50 per cent only.
The Tribunal further directed the OPSC to follow the decision of the Supreme Court while preparing the merit list by deleting the wrong questions by allotting marks in pro-rata basis to the students, who have attempted these questions or left them. The tribunal also quashed the selection or appointments, if any, have been made pursuant to the impugned corrigendum.
In the Assembly on last Thursday, Mishra had alleged that the Chief Minister had distributed some appointment letters to the selected candidates in February, which was in violation to law as the matter was still pending disposal in the tribunal.
Suspecting that gross irregularities have been made in the selection process of AEES, Mishra had demanded a thorough probe into it by an independent investigating agency. Comparing this recruitment scam in Odisha to that of Vyapam case in Madhya Pradesh many Congress and BJP legislators had also demanded a CBI probe into it.