CHENNAI: Minister for Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) K N Nehru on Wednesday rubbished the allegations of Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding the cash-for-jobs scam in the appointment of 2,538 staff in August this year.
In an official statement, Nehru said that this was yet another attempt by the union government’s agency to bring disrepute to the “Dravidian Model” government of DMK after its previous failed attempt to dredge up a years-old bank case and blow it out of all proportion.
Necessary legal steps would be taken to thwart such attempts, he said. ED had shared evidence pertaining to the purported scam in a letter to the Tamil Nadu police chief alleging payment of Rs 25-35 lakh by around 150 candidates to get appointed as sanitary officers, engineers and town planning inspectors.
In the statement, Nehru said that the process to appoint the candidates was done in a just and transparent manner and that there had not been a single objection from over two lakh candidates who applied.
The statement said that over 2,500 appointments had to be made since vacancies had increased over the years due to inadequate recruitment done during the AIADMK rule from 2011 to 2021.
Labelling the appointment as a historic achievement of the MAWS department, Nehru said that the union government was unable to tolerate this and had taken a political step through the ED to tarnish it.
He said that a separate website was created to receive applications from candidates – all of which were reviewed properly. The exam was conducted by Anna University at 591 centres in 38 districts and the results were published on their website in September 2024.
Stating that Anna University is a globally recognised autonomous institution which is not under the control of MAWS department directly or indirectly, it said even in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017 the exams were conducted through the university.
