Vigilance sleuths have seized several documents from the Rayagada Collectorate relating to Revenue Inspector (RI), Assistant Revenue Inspector (ARI) and Amin examinations held on February 23 and 24 last in the district here.
The advertisement for 12 posts of RI, 18 ARI and six Amin posts was published on July 12, 2013, but later, the number of post came down to six, 18 and three respectively because of change in reservation procedure.
As many as 762 applicants applied for the posts out of which 124 applications were rejected on various grounds.
The appointment letters for the posts were issued on August 8 last and the successful candidates were instructed to report in the establishment section. However, on August 10, another notice was uploaded in the district website nullifying the earlier notice. The date of the notice was overwritten whereas the original date was printed as August 8. A fresh list was put in the public domain where nine new names figured in case of ARI and two in case of Amin. A neatly signed result sheet for 542 candidates appeared in the website. The notice for the fresh appointment mentioned the reason of cancellation as technical snag.
“Observing these serious anomalies from the beginning, we assumed that there was foul play in the entire process. As the error amounted to 50-66 per cent, we were sure that it could not be only technical as attributed by the district administration. There must be human error as well. If the district administration was so transparent in putting the modified result sheet of all candidates on the date of fresh appointment order, why was not the same process followed in case of the first appointment order, asked a forum, Society for Fast Justice (SFJ), which is spearheading a campaign on judicial reforms and exposing corruption.
After an inspection of a few related documents by activists of the SFJ and some local scribes, several aberrations were noticed. The proceedings dated August 12, 2014 taken by the committee comprising members like Deputy Collector (Establishment), Tehsildar-Muniguda, Tehsildar-Bissam Cuttack, Sub-Collector-Rayagada and DWO headed by the Collector mention that the error is partly technical and partly human. If the error was human, why did the district administration hide the fact while putting the information in the district portalIJ Should not the erring committee members be held accountable for committing these blunders, asked Rabindra Patakhandal, a noted RTI activist of the district who does not rule out huge bribery at various levels in the process of recruitment.
Maheswar Mahapatra, a senior advocate, said, “After the test, the test papers need to be immediately deposited in the district treasury. During evaluation, those have to be brought back with strict vigil of a senior officer and again re-deposited; but it is really unfortunate that these papers were lying in the collectorate for about ten months till the vigilance seized them along with some other important documents. Hence, tampering cannot be ruled out.”
“There is heavy disgruntlement among the local tribals regarding the fake caste certificate. As a rule of law, any appointment seeking caste certificate has to be fresh, but most of the candidates have provided caste certificates which are pretty old. The candidates of the final list were instructed to join immediately in different Tehsils and were hardly given any time. This may have been done to cover up the wrongdoings of the authorities,” said Guru Sahu, an advocate.
“We expect an impartial inquiry and fast justice for all the losing candidates from the Vigilance which has done a yeomen’s job in a similar case in Bolangir. As it has engaged experts to study the seized documents, we are optimistic that all the erring officials will be taken to task and the entire selection process would be cancelled and redone under strict vigil of a senior pro-people bureaucrat from outside the district like Bishnupada Sethi or Taradutt,” said the convenor of SFJ.