MAPUSA
The Director of Panchayat and two others have found themselves in a spot of bother after a complaint was lodged against them for fraud and for resorting to corrupt practice while selecting candidates for the post of panchayat secretaries in the State.
The complaint lodged with the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Vigilance Department states that the Director of Panchayat, Gurudas Pilarnkar and two other officials have committed a fraud by recruiting at least one candidate who did not possess the essential qualification certificate.
Director of Panchayat, Gurudas Pilarnkar, was the chairman of the selection committee and deputy directors, Dasharath Redkar and Chandrakant Shetkar, were members of the panel, said Suvernasangeet Vernekar, the complainant, who is a resident of Siolim.
The Directorate of Panchayat had released an advertisement for 34 posts of panchayat secretaries in 2013. One of the essential educational qualifications was Diploma in Computers of minimum six months duration from a recognised institution.
Addressing a news conference at Sangolda, Vernekar said one of the candidates had failed to submit the essential Diploma in Computers certificate at the time of the interview or even at the time of joining.
Quoting information from documents sourced through the RTI Act, Vernekar said it was found that at the time of the interview, the candidate had submitted a certificate of five days computer course she underwent in a college in Mapusa.
“It was bounden duty and responsibility of the chairman and other members of the selection committee to check the candidate’s credentials and verify the documents,” Vernekar said.
Stating that such favouritism and bias process of recruitment could have been done in the case of other candidates too, which needs to be investigated, he further said that great injustice was done to almost 3,500 candidates applying for the posts.
Calling for a thorough inquiry into the selection process of the posts, Vernekar said: “We request the Vigilance Department to register an FIR against the chairman and other members of the selection committee,” Vernekar said.
When contacted, Director of Panchayat, Gurudas Pilarnkar said that as far as he knew, the particular candidate had obtained a certificate from a reputed Mapusa College.
“Let the authorities investigate into the matter. The truth will come out,” Pilarnkar said while speaking to The Goan.
