Paper leak, foul play in recruitment exam last month: Nimhans staffer
Around 9,000 candidates had appeared for 160 vacant posts in the health institute.
Bengaluru: Alleging question paper leak and foul play in the recruitment exam held last month, the employees’ association of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) has demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.
In a letter written to the Prime Minister and Union Health and Family Welfare Minister the association alleged that the exam paper was leaked through WhatsApp a day before. Around 9,000 candidates had appeared for 160 vacant posts in the health institute.
The letter sent by Nimhans Employees Association allege a larger conspiracy. It noted that for the staff nurse recruitment examination held on June 3, under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, an overwhelming majority of short listed candidates were from a particular tribe.
“Fifteen out of sixteen candidates, who cleared the exam, are from Meena community in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We then realised that the problem was graver than what we thought was a mere question paper leak,” said a member of the association.
The association had also written to institution director on June 5 demanding an inquiry into the matter after which an internal committee was formed.
However, according to the employees, the institution decided to further the process without the intervention of either the vigilance officer or the police.
The letter also read, “There was not even an attempt to include a network engineer or network technical expert as a fact-finding expert. It was also found that the DVR of surveillance cameras in the chief office of the examination room had been removed.”
When contacted, a top administrator at Nimhans denied the claim saying the online exam was conducted at a national level under strict monitoring, and only 10% of the candidates got selected.
“It is incidental that the grievances at the recruitment exam were raised by the employees association and not by the candidates,” clarified the official on why the results were published on July 7, even amidst protests by the employees association.