GUWAHATI: The State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB), which conducts employment tests for nearly 30 services related to various forces and other allied jobs, will be holding exams for only police jobs following the paper leak scam.
Assam DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta on Saturday said that the SLPRB has taken the decision keeping in mind the responsibility for maintaining law and order and the forthcoming elections to the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and the state Assembly.
"The reconstituted SLPRB assessed the scenario related to different recruitment tests currently entrusted on it. It was conducting recruitments for around 30 services. With all people in SLPRB from the police force now, it will be impossible for us to conduct all these exams," he said.
After the former SLPRB chairman Pradeep Kumar, who was a retired police officer, resigned owning moral responsibility of the paper leak for examination for sub-inspector posts, the state government on September 29 reconstituted the Board by appointing Mahanta as its new chairman.
Besides, Addl DGP (Security) Harmeet Singh has been appointed as its member secretary, while Addl DGP (Training & Armed Police) LR Bishnoi and IG (Special Branch) Hiren Chandra Nath have been posted as members.
"Given the current law and order scenario, the SLPRB will only be able to carry forward the recruitment process of various posts under Assam Police, Directorate of Home Guards and Civil Defence, and Office of the IG-Prisons," the DGP said.
He added that as the BTR and Assembly polls will be held within the next six months, it will be very difficult to devote time, logistics and manpower from the already overburdened resources of the police for recruiting people for other directorates and departments.
The state government has already tied up with five universities in Assam to conduct recruitment examinations for various departments.
On September 20, the question paper of the written examination for 597 posts of unarmed sub-inspectors in Assam Police got leaked and the SLPRB cancelled the test minutes after it had commenced across the state.
Mahanta said that the examination has been rescheduled on November 22 and the SLPRB has given the responsibility of holding it to Dibrugarh University. "We will bring out a standard operating procedure for the examination and will sign an MoU with Dibrugarh University soon. The physical tests and interviews will be conducted by Assam Police directly," he added.
The SLPRB chairman also stated that no outside agency will be involved in the recruitment process from now on and the existing party has already been disengaged.