RTI reveals 53 persons appointed for job they hadn’t applied for
1 Sep, 2013
The Department of Education of Punjab had asked for online applications in 2006 for the recruitment of physical training instructor (PTI) in various government schools. The certificate in physical education (CPEd) was fixed as the eligibility criterion. The applicants with higher qualification such as DPEd (diploma in physical education) and MPEd then approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking a revised merit. After the revised merit and the court’s order, the department appointed 849 candidates in 2012.
However, when the applicants filed an application with the department under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking the details of the appointment procedures, the department failed to provide them the information. Therefore, they had to approach the Punjab Information Commission which ordered the department to furnish the sought information.
The information provided by DPI’s office omitted columns of educational and other qualifications of 53 recruits. When the information was cross checked with official C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) data, it was found that these appointees had not even applied for the posts. The reply indicates irregularities in the appointments like candidates being appointed despite having obtained less marks than the cut-off or without having the professional certificates. The state education minister Sikander Singh Maluka has, however, assured that the appointees who hadn’t applied for the post will be sacked.