Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal cancelled a recruitment test for primary teachers for municipal schools following a report by the Delhi Police on the issue of alleged cheating in the examination, Raj Niwas said on Tuesday.
The test was conducted by the Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board (DSSSB) on October 29 and allegedly saw “large-scale cheating”, following which an FIR was registered on the same day by the Delhi Police and the matter was handed over to the Crime Branch for investigation.
Arrest of 20 accused
“In the latest report now submitted by the Delhi Police, it has been apprised that a number of suspects are possibly involved. Twenty accused persons have already been arrested. Delhi Police have also submitted that the use of social media and technology has come to light and prima facie, the number of alleged beneficiaries is also large,” Raj Niwas said in a statement.
The issue had been raked up by Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Vijender Gupta, with Mr. Gupta meeting Mr. Baijal on December 2 to submit a memorandum in relation to it and demanding that the examination be scrapped and rescheduled.
As such, according to the police, since the possibility of the “examination’s sanctity being violated cannot be ruled out”, Mr. Baijal had cancelled the said examination, Raj Niwas said.
Further, according to Raj Niwas, the L-G issued directions that the Chairperson, DSSSB, conduct the examination again expeditiously so that the vacancies of teachers were filled as soon as possible.
Plugging loopholes
“The L-G has advised that while doing so the DSSSB may review their systems and methods of conducting the examination thoroughly and also look into the modus operandi employed by the accused so that in future all such loopholes can be plugged,” Raj Niwas said further.
According to the report submitted to the L-G by the Delhi Police, a number of staff of the Education Department appeared to have been involved in an “organised manner in cheating or copying”. At least one of them, the police submitted, had reportedly been involved in a similar case earlier too.
The L-G, according to Raj Niwas, also directed that the Secretary (Education) must take strict disciplinary action against all such staff identified so far and submit an action taken report within 10 days.
