Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: In a major setback to over 170 candidates selected for various posts in the public works department, the State government has decided to scrap the entire selection cum recruitment process citing discrepancies.
The Advocate General Devidas Pangam today made submission before the Bombay High Court at Goa that government has decided to scrap the recruitment/ selection process.
He informed Court that the committee, constituted by the vigilance department under Finance Secretary found discrepancies in the recruitment process.
The committee, constituted in December last year, had in May submitted its report to the Government.
The Court accepted AG’s submission and accordingly disposed off the petition.
BJP’s Panjim MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserate had charged the then PWD minister Deepak Pauskar of “selling engineer posts”, and had claimed that the scam is worth Rs 70 crore. Pauskar, however, had dismissed the allegations.
With Monserrate seeking intervention, the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had then constituted a three-member committee consisting of principal secretary Puneet Kumar Goel, special secretary (vigilance) Ankita Anand and the director of vigilance.
However, Goel, who was later elevated as the State Chief Secretary, stepped out of the committee due to conflict of interest, as he was allotted PWD and Vigilance portfolio. Accordingly, Secretary Sanjay Gihar was nominated to head the inquiry.
A group of candidates, who had appeared for various technical posts of Public Works Department (PWD), had demanded scrapping of the entire recruitment process alleging manipulation in selection process.
The candidates — appeared for the post of Junior Engineer (JE) and Technical Engineer (TE) and cleared the exam but failed to get selected due to lower marks, demanded that fresh Computer Based Recruitment Test (CBRT) should be conducted.
“How can there be such a vast difference in the performance, considering that both the papers were equally tough. This can happen, only because, the posts were set in advance, for each candidate,” they alleged.
The candidates have urged the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to scrap all the posts and fresh recruitment process, through Staff Selection Committee be conducted. They also said that they have no faith in the Vigilance Department inquiry.
