Probe report nails officials, govt yet to act

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 1

A Punjab Police inquiry into the allegations of irregularities in the aborted recruitment process of 550 jail warders last year has held most of the charges true. Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, Deputy Inspector-General (DIG), Border Range, submitted his report to the state government about a month ago. The government response is not known.

The inquiry report recommends action against some officials who were part of the state and district boards entrusted with the task of making recruitments in 2011. However, the state government has not taken any action in the case so far.

The inquiry reportedly found hundreds of irregularities in the short-listing of candidates. Some of these include false information on height and education qualifications of some candidates.

The basic qualification was Class VIII pass. Some under-graduate candidates were shortlisted, showing them as postgraduates. Others having less height than the prescribed norm were shown taller.

In the inquiry report, which was not made public, the officer had recommended action against the officials responsible for “intentional lapses and wrong doings”. At least 2,000 irregularities were found in sample testing of the documents of a few thousand candidates of the 35,000 shortlisted for interview.

The report also recommended fresh recruitment in which written test was mandatory. The fresh recruitment is yet to take place.

While those who applied for jobs and considered themselves suitable had moved the high court seeking employment, the state jails suffer shortage of staff.

The department needs 1,200 jail wardens for better vigil. It wanted to recruit 540 wardens, besides drivers in 2011 when the recruitment process started. As the first phase of recruitment is stuck, the second could not be started, reveal sources.

Principal Secretary, Jails, Sanjay Kumar said the inquiry report had recommended action against officials at different levels of the recruitment. “The recruitment was cancelled. We have forwarded the report to the officials concerned, including those in the Home Department. It is under consideration.”

Many disappointed candidates had staged a demonstration at the Sangat Darshan programme of Deputy Chief Minister in Chandigarh last year. They had questioned the cancellation of the process.

An official revealed that an IG was asked to head a team to conduct the recruitment. The official said though the recruitment was for the Prisons Department, the government thought it was better that the Punjab Police conducted it as they had successfully conducted recruitment of its cadre recently.

About 1.35 lakh candidates had applied for the posts of jail warden. At least 35,000 were short-listed for an interview after the physical test. Later, allegations of improper recruitment were leveled and IG (Counter Intelligence) was tasked to scan the records. Later, then Minister for Jails Swaran Singh Phillaur ordered an inquiry, which was marked to DIG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh.