CHENNAI: After the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) decided to eliminate ineligible candidates who adopted foul means to make it to the selection list for the post of lecturers in government polytechnic colleges, the Central Crime Branch has registered a case against at least 100 persons, including staff of a UP-based company, for allegedly inflating marks of certain candidates.
A police source said that based on a complaint filed by TRB officials, a case has been registered against the staff of a private company to whom the process of compiling the OMR sheets was out-sourced.
The FIR was filed after a few candidates raised a complaint with the board, alleging foul play leading to high scores in the results. It may be noted that the results for the written tests were published last month. Later, the results were re-published along with the answers on November 11.
However, a top official of the Department of School Education had then said they have uploaded the original OMR sheets and the marks after due verification, inviting response from the candidates in the TRB website. “We are going to eliminate the ineligible candidates who adopted foul means to make it to the selection list,” he said adding that nearly 200 had got their marks inflated through unscrupulous means.
Claiming that it was for the first time that OMR sheets are being made available in public domain with a view to ensuring transparency after smelling a rat, the official said the candidates can verify their marks and that of others as well before coming out with representations.
Out of 1,70,363 who had applied, 1,33,567 candidates appeared for the test held on September 16 this year for filling 1,058 lecturers’ vacancies in polytechnic colleges. The results were published on November 7. Subsequently, 2,110 successful candidates were called for certificate verification, which was held for five non-engineering subjects on November 23, 24 and 25.
Certificate verification for engineering subjects has been deferred after the irregularities were unearthed following complaints from certain candidates. After uploading the OMR sheets of 1,33, 567 candidates in the TRB website, 20,000 persons accessed the OMR sheets and 10,000 have downloaded them.
Affirming that steps will be taken to prevent recurrence of such irregularities, the official said a deep probe to get to the bottom of the issue will be held. The guilty will not be spared. Safety mechanism to insulate the selection process from manipulation will be strengthened.
1 lakh applications
Out of 1,70,363 who had applied, 1,33,567 candidates appeared for the test held on September 16 this year for filling 1,058 lecturers’ vacancies in polytechnic colleges