Chief vigilance officer among 5 get notices for holding RTI info

GHOST CANDIDATES The scam involves hiring of social security officers and lower division clerks; test was held in Faridabad in 2009

ROHTAK: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has issued show-cause notices to the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) chief vigilance officer and four information officers for blocking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the hiring of social security officers and clerks.

The commission has sought explanation from them as “why a maximum penalty should not be imposed on them”. The ESIC held recruitment for social security officers and lower division clerks (LDCs) in Faridabad in 2009.

A complaint filed by RTI activist Harinder Dhingra said the recruitment was conducted “in the Munna Bhai MBBS (a 2003 Bollywood film) style”.

The RTI activist said he was shocked to find that signatures on admit cards and attendance sheets of successful LDC candidates were different from the signatures of those who were actually employed and were working in the office. “It is clear that those who were appointed for positions were different people from those who appeared in the examination,” the complaint said.

Dhingra said on his information regarding eight such candi- dates a probe was initiated in 2016. However, when he asked for fresh information about 14 more employees under RTI, the information was not provided to him. He approached the CIC, who issued show-cause notices to officers concerned asking why documents were “weeded out” when an RTI was pending.

While two other officers were issued notices for delay in information and contradiction in answers, chief vigilance officer BN Tripathi and deputy director (recruitment) were issued notices for their wings not sharing information with the CPIO.

While pulling up the officers in his interim order on Friday, the chief information commissioner said it was clear that “a kind of mini-vyapam scam might have happened in the public authority”.

The signatures of LDC candidates on admit cards were different from those who were actually employed. HARINDER DHINGRA, RTI activist