Minister K N Nehru Denies Irregularities in Recruitment
Government faces heat over recruitment scam claims; Minister insists selection was fair, transparent
Chennai: Denying allegations of widespread corruption in the recruitment of 2538 officers and engineers for the State department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply through written tests and interviews conducted by the Anna University, Minister for Municipal Administration K N Nehru said the selection process was carried out in a transparent manner.
Vowing to defeat the efforts to besmirch the government by taking legal steps against it, Nehru, in a statement on Wednesday said the Union Government’s Enforcement Directorate had written a letter to the State Police to file an FIR on the recruitment scam after it failed in its bid to revive an old case against his department.
A newspaper ‘expose’ on the alleged irregularity caused a storm in political circles on Wednesday with leaders of many political parties suggesting that it was a Rs 888.30 crore scam.
Political leaders, including the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami, BJP State president Nainar Nagenthiran and PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss flayed the government for the alleged corruption since the newspaper report said that selection process was rigged after collecting bribes ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh from job aspirants.
Replying to the charges, Nehru said that entire recruitment process starting with the receipt of over 2 lakh applications and over 1 lakh candidates taking the written test, followed by personal interviews and the handing over of the appointment orders by Chief Minister M K Stalin were carried out in a transparent manner with not a single job aspirant raising any doubts over its authenticity.
Explaining that there was a huge backlog of vacancies in the department since many vacancies were not filled up during the AIADMK regime between 2011 and 2021, he said the latest examination was conducted in 2024 mainly to fill 2019 vacancies that later rose to 2569.
To a question raised by the political leaders as to why the Anna University was assigned the job of recruiting candidates to fill the job vacancies, Nehru said that it was the same university that had conducted written tests and interviews for recruitment in the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
It was ridiculous to say that irregularities were committed in 2024 because the department officials interfered in the process, he said.
The political leaders had attacked the government on various fronts like shattering the dreams of the youth through the scam and also by pointing out that a law was passed in 2021 that only the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) should make recruitments for government departments.
