After the fraud of former trainee IAS Pooja Khedkar came to light, the investigation of those who got government jobs through fake documents has intensified. Meanwhile, it is coming to light that in the last 9 years, 1,084 complaints of fake documents have been received.
According to the Indian Express report, the records of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) show that 92 employees have been dismissed from service since 2019. According to information received from 93 ministries and departments under the government, during this period 349 complaints were received in Railways, 259 in Postal Department, 202 in Shipping Ministry and 138 in Food and Public Distribution Department. Sources in the Department of Personnel and Training said that many of these cases are pending in different courts.
Data collection began in 2010
The report states that the Department of Personnel and Training started collecting this data in 2010. It was started after the recommendation of the SC/ST Welfare Parliamentary Committee headed by the then BJP Lok Sabha MP Ratilal Kalidas Verma.
Time was given till 31 March
In this regard, the Department of Personnel and Training had issued the first message to ministries and departments on 28 January 2010. It was said that they should collect information from all the organizations under their administrative control about those cases where candidates got appointment on vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes on the basis of false/fake caste certificates. For this, a deadline of 31 March 2010 was given.
Verification is the responsibility of the state and central government
From time to time, DoPT keeps issuing instructions to all the state and union territory governments to ensure timely verification of caste certificates. DoPT has said that issuing and verifying caste certificates is the responsibility of the concerned state or union territory government.