Latest scam in Bihar rips open credibility of competitive exam
As if last year’s intermediate merit list scam wasn't bad enough, Bihar has found itself amid another examination scam — Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) examination question paper leak. This time around, it has eroded the credibility of those assigned with the task of conducting examinations for recruitment of government personnel in lower ranks.
It all started on February 6 when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ordered the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Patna SSP Manu Maharaj to probe allegations leak of BSSC exam question paper. Almost 18 lakh candidates had applied for the 13,000-odd clerical vacancies in different government departments.
It was a matter of hours before skeletons started tumbling out. By February 7, within 24 hours of the order, the SIT probe fetched sufficient evidence of the leaks, prompting the Nitish Kumar government to scrap the four-phase examinations.
Preliminary probe indicated that the question paper along with answers were provided to nearly 1,000 aspirants and each of them were asked to pay Rs 6 lakh in lieu of the favour. Those who leaked the question paper were aiming to earn at least Rs 50 crore, half of which the aspirants had already paid.
The probe has revealed that a well-oiled network of private players and BSSC employees was leaking question papers to those who were paying the sum. Police have so far arrested 37 people, including BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram, a senior state administrative service official who had the leaked question papers saved in his mobile phone, and his computer operator Awinash Kumar, among others.
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| Photo: Mail Today |
Ram’s mobile phone also contains text messages of two ministers, half-a-dozen legislators, police officials and secretary-rank officers, each of them seeking his favour to get their candidates selected in the test. In fact, all this can make the question paper leak and job scam bigger in magnitude and involvement than the 2016 intermediate results scandal.
The preliminary probe has pointed to a multi-crore nexus among officials, middlemen, organised employment racketeers and examinees. The police have also questioned Sushir Kumar, an IAS officer working as chairman of the BSSC, though not much has come out from it.
Their modus operandi was simple. The candidates, who had made advance payments, were added to a WhatsApp group. The selected candidates were first provided answers of the four question sets and then supplied the question papers about an hour before the test so they could match the particular question set with their answers. Ram apparently masterminded the question leak scam in cahoots with various intermediaries.
Ironically, the BSSC examination scam has surfaced only six months after Bihar weathered the ignominy of the intermediate merit scam, which revealed how State School Examination board mandarins conspired to facilitate merit ranking at a price for undeserving Intermediate students. If the merit scam had shaken the credentials of Bihar education system, this one has eroded the credibility of its competitive examination set-up.
(Courtesy: Mail Today)