Now State BJP is operating a recruitment syndicate: Debabrata Saikia

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia on Friday stated that the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is operating a new syndicate of recruitment to various departments of the State government and demanded an enquiry by a sitting judge of the Gauhati High Court into all recruitments made in the last four-and-a-half years.

Saikia said that adherence to a particular ideology or payment of bribes to specific middlemen was the means to secure jobs during the tenure of the incumbent State government. Regarding the SI recruitment scandal, he said that a few middlemen such as Saroj Sarma have been arrested along with a couple of former and serving police officers, but the police have been unable to muster the courage even to question other suspects because the latter enjoy political protection. He said that it is clear that the recruitment scam is all-pervasive and has been going on quite some time, because admit cards of recruitment examinations pertaining to other governments such as the Irrigation Department have been seized from Saroj Sarma and other middlemen.

Saikia referred to reports that around Rs. 5 crore had been recovered from accused middlemen in Goalpara and Dhubri districts and said that the police have deliberately refrained from trying to find out the names and the number of candidates who paid the bribes. He further alleged that an amount of more than Rs. 5 crore had been seized, but the actual amount of money recovered so far is being kept under wraps due to political intervention and the money may have been already misappropriated.

Further, Saikia mentioned that the Congress party has been repeatedly raising the issue of illegal trade in mineral resources such as coal and demanding a CBI enquiry into the matter in the Assam Legislative Assembly and other forums. However, the government has not dared to involve the CBI. As a result, trucks laden with contraband coal and other goods were entering the Barak Valley even now under the patronage of BJP leaders and the assistance of local officials of the civil administration and the police. Thousands of rupees are being illegally collected from each truck. He stressed that the Chief Minister must be aware of this fact because BJP leaders make the necessary phone calls regarding which trucks should be allowed to cross the border with Bangladesh.

The leader also added that news has been published that the incumbent NRC (National Register of Citizens) State Coordinator (SCNRC) has instructed various Deputy Commissioners to prepare a list of 'D voters'. He said that such a directive is tantamount to contempt of the Supreme Court because the SCNRC has not taken the Court's leave to issue the directive.

The Apex Court has not passed any order regarding omission or inclusion of fresh names in the final NRC, he pointed out. Therefore, the State government should take the initiative to expeditiously start the appeals process pertaining to the final NRC, which was supposed to start within 120 days of publication of the document but has remained on hold for over one year. Emphasis should be laid on inclusion of the names of local inhabitants whose names did not appear in the NRC because they never applied for enrolment, Saikia added.

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