Paper leak scam: Congress govt puts Himachal Staff Selection Commission under suspension

shimla: The paper leak scam relating to Junior Office Assistant (JOA) IT exams which has rocked the Congress government has put Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission under clouds.

The government, within three days of the scam coming to fore, has decided to suspend the functioning of Staff Selection Commission Hamirpur with immediate effect.

Also, all the ongoing and pending recruitment processes have been put on hold till further orders. The officers and employees working in the Commission will now report to the officer on special duty.

The government has appointed Additional Deputy Commissioner Hamirpur as the officer on special duty of the commission. Along with this, the government has also relieved Jitendra Kumar, the secretary of the commission, and Sanjeev Kumar, the deputy secretary. These officers have been asked to report to the Personnel Department.

The orders for posting of officers were issued by Chief Secretary R D Dhiman after the chief minister ordered the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to conduct deeper investigations into the functioning of the Commissioner and also find out if the earlier selections by the commissioner were also compromised.

Six persons including Uma Azad, a senior superintendent in the secrecy branch of the commission, her son Nikhil Azad, a middleman Sanjay Sharma and three others – Neeraj, Ajay Sharma and Tanu Sharma were arrested on Friday for allegedly selling and purchasing the paper.

The exam was scheduled to be held on Sunday but was promptly cancelled by the commission. More than 1.3 lakh candidates were to appear in the examination at 476 centres, said Naresh Chauhan, Principal Media (Advisor) to the Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu. On Monday, the government set up an SIT under DIG G Sivakumar alongwith three SPs Rahul Nath, Anjum Ara, Balveer Singh to conduct the investigations.

Four Additional Superintendents of Police and three Deputy Superintendents of Police will also be in the SIT team. A separate technical team has also been constituted to take forward the investigation.

Commission Chairman Sanjay Thakur said that the senior assistant who leaked the JOA IT recruitment exam paper has been suspended. Where his headquarters will be fixed after suspension will be decided in the meeting of vigilance action. The state government suspending the functioning of Himachal Staff Selection Commission Hamirpur with immediate effect shows the commitment of Chief Minister Sukhu to provide a corruption-free and responsive administration to the people of the state.