It is a good job
that the Assam Police CID on Friday submitted the much-awaited chargesheet in
the Sub-Inspector recruitment scandal case that had rocked the State three
months ago. The chargesheet, running into 2,621 pages, has reportedly mentioned
the names of 36 persons including one senior serving Assam Police officer and
politically influential individuals as accused in the recruitment scandal. The
CID submitted its charge-sheet before a special court in Guwahati on Friday. It
was only the previous day that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had
emphatically stated that all aspiring youths would get their deserving jobs in
a transparent and accountable manner. As has been already reported, altogether
58 persons have been arrested by the CID and police from different districts of
Assam for their alleged role in the SI recruitment scandal. The list included
several top officers including senior APS officer Kumar Sanjit Krishna, a
former DIG PK Dutta and a BJP leader called Diban Deka. What however is still
intriguing is that the scandal had taken place despite the fact that the
government recruitment agency - the State Level Police Recruitment Board – was
headed by a very senior IPS officer called Pradeep Kumar, and that the CID has
not as yet initiated any move to ask any question to him. The IPS officer
quietly submitted his resignation even before the government removed him, and
is likely to go scot-free. While the Government had cancelled the written
examination to recruit 597 police Sub-Inspectors for the Assam Police after the
question paper was leaked on September 20, 2020, the CID has so far seized cash
amount to the tune of Rs. 6,26,69,440, among other things during the course of
investigation.
The people of the state very clearly recall that the BJP-led coalition came to power in 2016 with the slogan of freeing Assam from three things – illegal migrants, environmental pollution and corruption. But then, though Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took the bold stand of directing an inquiry into the various recruitment scandals that had taken place in the APSC and had even sent then APSC chairman Rakesh Paul and two other APSC members to jail, the case is yet to reach its logical end. While the matter is in the court, the Assam Police have so far failed to arrest a couple of accused, including a younger brother of Rakesh Paul. It is a fact that the APSC scandal had taken place during the previous Congress regime. It is a fact that most APSC chairpersons hardly get one or two years to serve in that office, but the previous Congress government, and particularly its Chief Minister gave Rakesh Paul the opportunity of remaining in the APSC for several years at a stretch. The previous Chief Minister had handpicked a relatively young Rakesh Paul and appointed him as a Member of the APSC in 2008. In 2013, Rakesh Paul was elevated to the chairman's post, so that he gets several years to indulge in largescale corrupt practice and ruin whatever little reputation that the APSC was left with after three or four preceding chairpersons had also put in a lot of effort to permit as much irregularity possible in the recruitments that it had carried out.
While Chief Minister Sonowal deserves praise for his bold stand against corruption, the people of the state however do not seem to be convinced. There are regular reports in the media about corrupt practices still going on in so many government departments and agencies. While the Social Welfare department had gone into the 'corruption mode' several years ago, things are yet to improve despite the unearthing of a Rs 2000-crore scandal in 2017 and the arrest of several senior officers including a retired IAS officer. School and college teachers across the state probably know it well that nothing moves in Kahilipara – where offices of most of the wings of the Education department are located – without offering something right from the peon to even some senior officers. There have been reports of major scandals in Gauhati University and Assam Agricultural University. A section of government officers – including police officers who are supposed to "catch thieves" – continue to allegedly procure huge property in Guwahati and other places which evidently appear contradictory to their "normal" income. Prices of vegetables continue to remain high, with the common belief and suspicion that suppliers and vendors have to pay a lot of "fee" to a chain of people from the source to the retail market. Common people wonder how political parties – including the newly-born ones – can afford to spend so luxuriously in holding rallies when the economy of the country/state has been so badly affected by Covid-19 and the lockdown. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!