7/12/2015 Bankers Adda: SBI Descriptive 2015 : All About Vyapam (Scam)

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SBI Descriptive 2015 : All About Vyapam (Scam)Dear Readers,You all must be hearing about a word "VYAPAM" on all the news channelsand might be seeing it on the cover pages of the newspapers as well. Youdon't need to wonder at all. You might get this topic in the upcomingdescriptive exam like SBI PO Mains. Being recently in news, it is one hottopic for discussion. It's seriousness got elevated once the unseen pages ofVYAPAM got turned by special Task Force constituted by Court Authority.Now the first question that might arise in your mind is "What is Vyapam?"

The answer is, the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board(MPPBP), the government body responsible for conducting several entrancetests in the State, is popularly known as ‘Vyapam’ (Hindi acronym forVyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal). These entrance tests are used for recruitmentto government jobs and admissions to educational institutes in the State.The scam, which has been in the news recently, is an admission andrecruitment scam involving politicians, senior government officials, business­persons and others in Madhya Pradesh. In it, undeserving candidates bribedpoliticians and MPPEB officials, through middlemen, to get high ranks in theentrance tests or secure jobs. Many of those who discovered these sordidfacts — whistleblowers and journalists responsible for unearthing the details— have died in a spate of suspicious incidents. The three mainwhistleblowers — social activists Dr Anand Rai and Ashish Chaturvedi, andIT consultant Prashant Pandey — have been receiving death threats.According to varied reports from whistleblowers, the following tricks wereused by those involved in the scam:i. All the information of the candidate remained the same, except thephotograph. The candidate’s photograph was replaced by that of theimpersonator and after the exam, it was changed back to the original.Obviously, the impersonators were brilliant students and they received hugesums to keep their mouths shut.ii. A person was strategically made to sit in front of the candidate in question.The person let them copy from his sheet or exchanged the sheet with themat the end of the exam.iii. The candidates in question were asked to leave their answer sheets blankand were given high marks in the exam. Or they were supplied with solvedOMR sheets before they took the exam.While complaints against irregularities came trickling in from the mid­2000s,the Vyapam issue turned murkier from 2007­08 onwards. However, it wasonly in 2013 that the lid was blown.

The Opposition claims that over 77 lakh candidates have paid bribes tosecure seats and jobs. Here’s how it all began:2007: This was the year when the scent of a scam was sniffed. The MPLocal Fund Audit office found financial and administrative irregularities inVyapam.2009: Activist and doctor from Indore Anand Rai filed a public interestlitigation (PIL) with the MP High Court, alleging foul play in the recruitmentsand admissions.2011: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan set up an enquiry committee tolook into the matter.2013: Anand Rai made startling revelations that led to a series of arrests. On

7/12/2015 Bankers Adda: SBI Descriptive 2015 : All About Vyapam (Scam)

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the intervening night of July 6 and 7, the police arrested 20 persons who wereto impersonate candidates scheduled to appear on July 7 for the MPPEB. OnJuly 12­13, the kingpin of the racket, Jagdish Sagar, was arrested. A listconfiscated from him revealed the names of 317 candidates. MPPEB’s examcontroller, Pankaj Trivedi, who vouched for students who had fraudulently‘answered’ the exam, sending letters to institution heads to accept them, waslater arrested and removed from his post. A Special Task Force of the MPPolice began handling the investigation. The Congress requested the HighCourt to conduct a CBI probe.2014: The MP High Court rejected the demand for a CBI Inquiry by theCongress and other parties. In April, 27, students from MGM Institute ofHealth Sciences were expelled for fraudulently clearing the medical test backin 2012.2015: Accused, witnesses and investigators have been dropping like fliesthis year. So far, around 1,900 are in jail. According to latest developments,though the State Government of Madhya Pradesh wanted to hand overinvestigation to the CBI, the MP High Court quashed the request, stating itwill not take a decision till the Supreme Court weighs in on the matter.

Now after all of this, the matter is still under investigation and the finaldecision is still to be taken. It has to go a long way and many pages of thisbook is still unturned. We have to wait and watch untill some concrete stepsis to be taken by the authority. In this country where unemployment is one ofthe burning issues, such kind of incident will not only demotivate the younggeneration but will adversely affect the output.