New CIC was indicted in probe

When,as per the norms,heads of six panels constituted to screen the candidates should have been the officers of SDM and BDO rank,Pankaj appointed the Basic Shiksha Adhikari,the District Handicapped Welfare Officer and the District Programme Implementation Officer to head the selection committees.

These panel heads were charged with,among other things,accepting bribes between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh. Other charges against the panels included clearing the appointment of candidates who provided fudged documents,appointing as many as four members from the same family,appointing ineligible candidates (those who cannot be employed as safai karamcharis as they were already engaged in other occupations) including those from higher castes. Some who were even physically unfit for the job were selected the probe report reportedly said.

Also,the DM’s role came under suspicion when despite the commissioner’s orders for stopping the recruitment process on September 10,2008,he went ahead to declare the list of candidates on September 12,2008.

These “tainted” candidates,allegedly at the behest of the panel heads,later staged a protest against the commissioner who annulled their appointments.

Later,the selected candidates led by Hare Ram went to court.

Though the government announced cancellation of all appointments,the case went to the Allahabad High Court.

One of the complainants,Chedi Prasad Verma,who was not selected despite having allegedly paid Rs 50,000 as bribe,later lodged an FIR against Basic Shiksha Adhikary Manoj Kumar Mishra,who headed one of the panels and was considered close to the DM.

The Commissioner himself ordered the SSP to lodge the FIR as prima facie the Basic Shiksha Adhikary appeared to have been found guilty.

Earlier,the appointment process of 3,448 safai karmcharis for Gorakhpur division was initiated through government orders,dated April 11,2008 and June 6,2008.

As the recruitment began,complaints began to pour in. There were as many as 241 written complaints — including one by the then district president of the Bahujan Samaj Party Kamlesh Prasad.

The state government took cognisance of the complaints and ordered the commissioner to probe them.

Pankaj,meanwhile,said SDMs and other senior officers were not appointed as panel heads as it could have created a law and order problem in the district that was just gearing up to cope with floods. “For screening applications,I could not have engaged SDMs. Class II rank officers were appointed to head panel and there was nothing wrong in it,” said Pankaj.

On why he went on to declare results even after the commissioner had ordered against it,Pankaj said lists were already out and it was not in his hand to stop its publication.