'Irregularities' in Patwari exam: Not first time that Gwalior hits headlines for recruitment exam 'scam'

Gwalior-based NRI College in Madhya Pradesh, reportedly owned by BJP MLA Sanjeev Kushwaha, has not just dented the credibility of the state Employee Selection Board (ESB) but has also put the future of more than 8000 job aspirants on stake.

Seven of the top 10 scorers in the Group 2 and Sub-Group 4 Patwari (revenue department officials) recruitment examination took their test at the NRI College. This raised suspicion over the fair conduct of the recruitment process.

Subsequently, after candidates staged massive protests in Indore alleging irregularities in the recruitment process and Opposition Congress too stepped up its offensive against the state government, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan put the appointment of selected candidates on hold.

Chief Minister Chouhan, however, has not made it clear how long the appointments will remain on hold or whether a fresh recruitment examination would be conducted. It's all likely to be decided following the outcome of an investigation into the alleged irregularities.

Interestingly, without any probe into the allegations, BJP leaders have maintained that there are "no irregularities" in the recruitment process, and instead blamed the Congress for playing "dirty politics".

Amid the ongoing slugfest between the BJP and the Congress, it is interesting to note that this is not the first time Gwalior has hit the headlines for irregularities in state government recruitment exams.

The Vyapam scam case has a strong connection with Gwalior. Some of the key masterminds in the case were associated with the nexus of education mafias of the Gwalior-Chambal region.

The list of such alleged scams linked with Gwalior is just not limited to Vyapam or this latest alleged irregularities in the Patwari recruitment examination.

A massive scam was detected in 2021, wherein two colleges - one from Gwalior and another one from Datia - were found involved in irregularities in the recruitment of nurses. Around 500 nurses were recruited in these two colleges through an online examination.

A Gwalior-based senior journalist told IANS that a strong nexus of education mafias and people associated with politics is operating in the Gwalior-Chambal region for a long. "Even the Congress government could take any action against this nexus. Most of the coaching centres and private colleges are being run by politically connected persons in the Gwalior-Chambal region," he said.