PATNA: The detection of forged documents during the scrutiny of applications submitted by candidates for appointment of assistant professors in the state’s universities has stumped the Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC).
The commission has lodged FIR against two such applicants and has increased vigil to prevent any undeserving candidates getting even closer to the interview stage, officials said.
The final verification of documents is done at the interview stage.
Both the candidates are women and from Supaul district of Bihar. Besides, both submitted forged MA certificates for Bhojpuri and Angika subjects from UP’s Choudhary Charan Singh University (Meerut). The forgery was established after the registrar of the university responded to the commission’s query and said that such courses were not run there.
“The candidates were again sent letters if they had anything to say on the forgery established by the institutions they claimed to have studied, but even after months there was no response from their side. Later, after consultation with the government, commission’s deputy secretary Ashok Kumar lodged FIRs against both the candidates with Patna’s Kotwali police station for action as per law as the candidates had tried to forge documents for appointment as assistant professors,” said BSUSC chairman Rajvardhan Azad.
“It was during scrutiny that we smelt a rat and decided to get the documents verified. It is sad that such unscrupulous elements unnecessarily delay the process. We have to tread very carefully to ensure that only deserving candidates get through and therefore we have put in place a transparent process with adequate checks to separate the wheat from the chaff,” he added.
BSUSC had advertised 4,638 vacancies of assistant professors in 52 subjects on September 23, 2020, just ahead of the announcement of state assembly elections and it will complete the interview process for nearly half of them soon. BSUSC received 67,578 online applications, the maximum number from Bihar, followed by neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Applications also came from almost every state in the country.
The chairman said that the commission was trying to do things fast, but a lot of effort was required in screening the applications. “After screening of applications at three levels involving experts, candidates are invited three times the number of vacancies for interview. Computer generated scores are given to applicants on academic records and publications/awards/work experience out of 100 on clearly laid down parameters to reduce chances of human discretion, while interview carries just 15 marks. We are sending recommendations of the candidates the same day the interview is completed or within two days of completion,” he added.
Azad said that the documents of some institutions had also been sent for verification, as they did not have the signature of the authorised signatory. “Many universities are running new courses which are not identified under any particular stream or recognised, but the candidates want their candidature to be accepted for allied subjects. Marking for the research papers has also been made uniform on clearly laid down parameters to avoid human discretion. A peer reviewed paper is given greater weightage. But the entire exercise has been made candidate friendly. We give adequate opportunities if some candidates could not submit original certificates but have submitted mark sheets or provisionals,” he said.
The alarm in the BSUSC following detection of forged documents is understandable, as it is not the first time it has happened in the state. Last year, the education department found 562 candidates having submitted forged CTET/BETET certificates during recruitment for school teachers despite warnings to avoid past experience.
The recruitment of school teachers between 2006 and 2015 through panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies had landed in the Patna high court after allegations of use of forged documents by a large number of candidates and the probe has been on for nearly seven years now. A few thousand teachers had also resigned under the high court’s amnesty scheme. The high court, which ordered the vigilance probe into appointment of teachers in 2015, had in the past expressed displeasure over the slow probe as over 90,000 folders of teachers were found missing at one point of time. The department later asked the teachers to upload scanned copies of their certificates on the specified portal, but that process has also been slow.
