A major scandal has come to light in the Postal Department. As many as 42 candidates have allegedly tampered with their SSLC marks sheets to secure jobs as Rural Dak Sevak in the department.
The department, during last year’s recruitment drive, had invited applications for filling up 1,714 posts of rural postal services across the State and SSLC was the maximum qualification for eligibility criteria. Thousands of candidates from across the State applied for the posts online, and some of the candidates burnished their credentials for the job by tampering with their original obtained marks.
Among the 42 candidates who reported tampering with their marks cards, nearly 27 are from Kalaburagi district, seven are from Yadgir, four from Bidar, two from Sirsi and one each from Raichur and Vijayapura districts.
The Department of Public Instruction, during the verification process, found that some of the candidates had altered their marks up to 97.92% to get jobs, and some of the candidates who studied SSLC in Kalyana Karnataka region have applied for the post at Sirsi and Vijayapura to avoid documents scrutiny.
Akash Shankar, Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction Kalaburagi Divisional, provided the details to The Hindu and said that the scam came to light when the Postal Department had sent all the documents of the candidates selected for verification to the concerned departments. We [Department of Public Instruction] found that some of the mark cards were tampered with. Mr. Shankar had written to the Superintendent of the Postal Department to take all the 42 altered marks cards into custody and register a complaint against those candidates in their respective jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the officials of the department have failed to take any action against those who have done injustice to the eligible candidates by altering the marks to get government jobs.
Priyank Kharge, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister and district in-charge said that he would collect more details pertaining to the case and recommend for an investigation if necessary.
