Priyank flays BJP over PSI recruitment scam

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress MLA Priyank Kharge on Sunday tore into the BJP over the Police Sub Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam.

He said that the state government had been caught unawares, adding that the incident was proof of the incompetence of Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra. “These things (recruitment irregularities) have been going on ever since Mr Bommai took over as CM,” Kharge said.

“The government has admitted that the recent PSI appointment is illegal and an investigation is underway. They are acting like they did something great by discovering this scam and they’ve been patting themselves on the back. Upon observing the case closely, it is clear that this ‘40 per cent government’ is complicit in this case’’ Kharge said.

“They’ve ruined the future of lakhs of youth. People now consider government jobs a distant dream. Parents work very hard so that they can educate their children and they land government jobs. In our village, everyone will be eagerly waiting for a single student to get a government job. The government is spoiling the dreams of these youth,” he said. 

Kharge added that the chronology of events was proof of the lax attitude of the State government.

“In 2020, the High Court had ordered the filling of government posts. Accordingly, the government issued two notifications. The second notification was issued on January 21. What is surprising is that there were 1,28,598 applicants for the filling of 545 posts. From this, we can gauge people’s aspirations. On January 1, exams for the filling of 402 posts were conducted. This was the second phase. Then it came to light that there were irregularities in the recruitment. Students had then requested transparency in the process,” Kharge claimed.

“The home minister had tweeted that the recruitment should be carried out without doing injustice to anyone. However, he did not pay any mind to the potential illegality of the first phase recruitment. On January 19, a list of potential recruits was released. A week later, on January 25, some candidates filed a complaint with the DG. They disclosed that the question paper was very tough but there were students who had scored over 120 marks. Something was clearly wrong with the first phase recruitment. The complainants claimed that in parts of north Karnataka where there were no centres, some students had used Bluetooth devices to cheat (by hearing answers through devices),” he added.