CM Vishnu Deo Sai addressing a public meet
Vishnu Deo Sai-led Chhattisgarh Government has formed a commission that will assist and advise the government on conducting the exams in a transparent manner. The exams will be conducted by the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) on lines similar to that of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
As per the notification issued by the government, a commission headed by former Chairman of the UPSC, Professor Pradeep Kumar Joshi, has been formed by the government, which will advise the State government on the way competitive examinations will be conducted by the CGPSC.
The newly formed commission will also assist the government in formulating the yearly examination calendar for separate departments and suggest measures that will help instill the faith of the candidates in the State Public Commission.
Expressing his satisfaction over the development, Chief Minister (CM) Vishnu Deo Sai tweeted that “Another guarantee fulfilled………A commission has been formed to conduct the CGPSC examination on the lines of the UPSC.”
In his tweet, the CM further promised to restore the lost faith of the students in the examination system of CGPSC. Notably, the announcement was made months after CM Sai dropped hints to form such a commission on the occasion of Republic Day this year.
CBI investigation into alleged CGPSC scam
It is worth mentioning here that the incumbent government had earlier announced that the allegation of nepotism and fraud in the CGPSC examination under the previous government regime would be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The Chhattisgarh government has decided that it will ask the CBI to begin an extensive probe into the complaint of irregularities in the State Services Examination 2021. The decision has been made in the interest of the students,” informed the Chief Minister Office (CMO) Chhattisgarh in a detailed post on social media platform X on January 3rd this year.
The decision taken by the cabinet was a much-awaited development, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the State assembly election had promised to begin a CBI probe into the matter and send the culprits of the alleged scams behind bars if voted to power.
Notably, several senior leaders of the BJP, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, trained guns on the previous Congress government during the state assembly election campaign last year, alleging that wide-scale irregularities had occurred in the PSC examination.
Furthermore, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the State had also registered a First Information Report (FIR) into the alleged scam in the month of February this year.
According to the reports, an FIR pertaining to alleged irregularities in the examination was filed against the then chairman of CGPSC, Toman Sonwani, secretary Jivan Kishore Dhruv and others.
Allegation of Irregularities
It is to be noted that the state’s Public Service Commission landed in deep waters after it declared the list of successful candidates for CGPSC 2021 in April last year. The list includes relatives of a few congress leaders, senior bureaucrats, and seasoned businessmen.
The list also includes one ‘Nitesh’ whose surname was reportedly kept hidden; later it was claimed that the said candidate was the adopted son of the then chairman, Tamam Sonwani.
Adding fuel to the fire, a post by an anonymous PSC aspirant on social media further stormed the state’s political galleries after the aspirants made serious allegations about the selection process of the candidates and claimed that a couple of drug addicts also got selected in the examination.
Further, the then opposition BJP launched a state-wide protest against Bhupesh Baghel’s-led Congress government. The party’s youth wing, along with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), had hit the streets while demonstrating aggressively against the alleged nepotism and fraud in the examination held in 2021.
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