Shadows of doubt over handling of Vyapam scam sullied MP's image

Bhopal, Feb 4: The multi-layer ‘Vyapam Scam’ which came to the fore a decade back in Madhya Pradesh, had grabbed global headlines especially because of mysterious deaths during the investigations.

The scam pertaining to forgery, cheating, bribery, misuse of government office and many more was an exposure of strong and multi-layer nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and outsiders, which has not only put a dent on state’s reputation but also ruined the future of lakhs of youths of Madhya Pradesh.

As it was exposed (2013) during the second tenure of former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, made all his efforts to get rid of from until the end of his regime by renaming it twice, however, irregularities in exams and recruitments for the state government employees continues as an evident that the nexus still have a presence in the system.

The name of the department, Vyapam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal), which is responsible for conducting exams and recruitment of state government employees, has been renamed twice since then. Ex-chief minister Chouhan led BJP government first rechristened it as Professional Examination Board (PEB) in 2015 and again in February 2022 renamed it as Karmchaari Chayan Mandal (Staff Selection Board).

It was renamed in a bid to repair at least some of the damage to the State’s reputation. Besides the renaming, the department which used to come under the technical education department of the Madhya Pradesh government has now been transferred to the general administration department (GAD).

Now, the department is known as – Staff Selection Board. The presence of ‘Vyapam Ghost’ was felt a few months before the assembly election held in November last year, when the results for recruitment for Patwaris (revenue officers) was declared.

The then chief minister Chouhan had maintained that no irregularities had taken place in the Patwari recruitment exam, however, a relentless protest from job aspirants and the main opposition in the state – Congress has prompted him to put the recruitment on hold and an investigation was ordered.

Sources told IANS that the one-member commission investigating the alleged Patwari recruitment scam has submitted the report to the state government, however, the new Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who has succeeded Shivraj Singh Chouhan after the BJP registered a resounding victory in the assembly election by winning 163 out of 230 seats in November last year, was yet to make any statement on this matter.

Since then, as many as three assembly elections – 2013, 2018 and 2023 held in Madhya Pradesh, out of which the BJP have won two of them and the Congress led by former state unit chief Kamal Nath had managed to win in 2018, however, the political crisis and factionalism within the grand-old party had made the BJP to return to the power in March 2020.

The body then known as Vyapam was at the epicentre of a massive scam that involved rigging entrance tests to professional courses and fraud in the recruitment of employees and officers to various departments in the state government.

The scam was at first investigated by the state police, but the case was later transferred to the CBI on the orders of the Supreme Court. A series of suicides and deaths of the accused made the case even more sinister.

The cases related with this multi-layer Vyapam Scams are under-trial in different district courts in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior. The main case, which is named as ‘engine-bogie’ is being heard at a special CBI court in Bhopal.