Raipur: Already reeling under Enforcement Directorate (ED) onslaught, Chhatisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has now landed in a fresh soup over unprecedented nepotism in Public Service Commission recruitment.
The scam has not only diminished the people’s trust in CM Baghel but has also shaken the confidence people had expressed in the Congress party and it’s programmes and policies in 2018.
People are shaken and wondering over the scale of corruption, nepotism and oppression by the Congress government which else where claims to be the champion of democracy, human rights, free speech and probity in public life.
However, precisely opposite did the Congress regime chose to go with when it rose to power in Chhattisgarh after decimating the BJP in 2018 assembly polls.
Rising complaints and anger over nepotism in recently held recruitment of Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) has turned out to be a new headache to the belligerent Bhupesh Govt which has already been going through its leanest patch owing to startling revelations by the ED and Icome Tax department.
A major controversy erupted after CGPSC declared the list of those selected for the government posts including Deputy Collector and Deputy Superintendent of Police on May 11. People were dumbfounded when it was found that CGPSC chairman Toman Singh Sonwani’s son Nitesh, Governor’s secretary Amrit Khalkho son Nikhil and daughter Neha along with kins of several other officials and politicians were selected for the key positions.
BJP leader and former IAS OP Chowdhary claimed that he was in receipt of an anonymous letter which has revealed the entire gameplan being played out in CGPSC recruitment. Rs. 75 lakhs were being paid by each candidates to Sonwani and others, it is being alleged.
Commission has been in the spotlight for all bad reasons since it’s inception in 2001 when Chhattisgarh was carved out of the Madhya Pradesh in 2000. All it’s recruitments, barring a few, have been subject to legal and political quagmire. But the level of insensitivity, nepotism, inefficiency, and corruption has touched it’s low after Bhupesh was ascended to power.
Sonwani, a former IAS officer who now heads the controversial body, has switched off his mobile phone after the scam came to light. Incidentally, the same officer has also been named in Income Tax Departments’s case against Anil Tuteja, his son Yash, CM’s super powerful Deputy Secretary Saumya Chaurasia and others in Tis Hazari Court of New Delhi.
According to IT findings Sonwani, who was Director Agriculture in 2020, collected 12.96 crore from Mukesh Chauradiya, , 14.86 crore from Mandeep Chawala, and 16 crore from Kishore Chandrakar.
The money was then forwarded to Ram Gopal Agrawal and Pawan Bhatia on behalf of Anil Tuteja who it is widely believed is a defacto CM owing largely to his proximity of CM Baghel.