Services of three officials of rural development dept in Ferozepur terminated

The inquiry was conducted by IAS officer Paramvir Singh regarding recruitment made under the MGNREGA Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme in 2018-19 and 2020-21.The report, submitted on February 3, found several irregularities like tampering of answer sheets and final merit list, illegalities in awarding marks and other anomalies.According to the inquiry report, against 12 posts of GRS, 28 were filled, and four posts of computer assistants, eight were filled.

Services of three Punjab government officials have been terminated following an inquiry report on alleged irregularities in recruitment made under the MGNREGA scheme here, officials said on Tuesday.

The rural development and panchayat department terminated the services of Gram Sewaks (GRs) Gurpreet Singh and Jaswinder Singh and also of Assistant Block Coordinator Sameer Sharma, they said.

The action was taken after it was found in the inquiry report that there were irregularities in their recruitments.

According to the report, they were marked absent in the attendance sheet but still they were selected for the posts. The inquiry was conducted by IAS officer Paramvir Singh regarding recruitment made under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) scheme in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

The report, submitted on February 3, found several irregularities like tampering of answer sheets and final merit list, illegalities in awarding marks and other anomalies.

According to the inquiry report, against 12 posts of GRS, 28 were filled, and four posts of computer assistants, eight were filled. Similarly, against one post of assistant coordinator, three were allegedly appointed.

Taking cognizance of the report, the department issued charge-sheets to the members of the selection committee, including the then additional deputy commissioner (ADC) for development.

Besides, the department has also asked the senior superintendent of police of Ferozepur to register an FIR against the selection committee members, including the then ADC (development), deputy CEO and executive engineer, district informatics officer and district welfare officer for their alleged involvement in the recruitment, said the officials. Amandeep Gujral, additional deputy commissioner (development), said the action has been initiated following orders received from secretary, rural development and panchayats, Rahul Bhandari on February 21. Meanwhile, Ramandeep Sachdeva, district nodal officer (MGNREGA), denied all the allegations, saying that all the recruitments were made as per legal process. "No wrongdoings have been done during the selection of these candidates. As far as recruitment of more candidates is concerned, it was done after getting the permission from the head office only", he said. Sachdeva also refuted charges of tampering of answer sheets and merit lists. "The entire examination process was video-graphed and it is wrong to say that the candidate did not even appear for exams and got selected", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)