False disability certificates: Assam Government to act against medical officers

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Medical officers who have issued false disability certificates should start counting their days as the government will now take action against such officers. The government has also put on hold the process of appointing persons with disabilities to 413 Grade III and Grade IV posts.

Talking to media persons today, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The government has put on hold the appointment of divyang candidates in Grade III and Grade IV posts. It has come to our attention that many disability certificates submitted by the candidates during the recruitment process were not valid. The special medical board that was set up for examining the candidates found that many candidates did not have a benchmark disability, although they had submitted the required disability certificate issued by a certified medical officer.

“The government will not allow genuine Divyang candidates to be deprived of their rights. Candidates without the benchmark disability will not be allowed to get jobs reserved for Divyang people.”

The Chief Minister further said that now all the disability certificates will be verified by the special medical board, and action will be taken against those medical officers who have magnified the disability of some candidates and issued certificates certifying that they have a benchmark disability when actually their disability is less than 40%. “Action will be taken against around 1,000 medical officers, including some officers of the rank of Joint Director of Health Services. If these medical officers cannot prove that they issued genuine certificates based on the disability condition of the candidates, they will be arrested,” he said.

“There have been many instances of fake caste certificates being issued, and the government has acted against this. The government will also take stern action against those issuing false disability certificates. No one will be allowed to take up jobs reserved for divyangs by submitting false disability certificates,” said the Chief Minister.

A total of 820 candidates with disabilities had been selected for recruitment to Grade III and Grade IV posts. They had even been allotted their departments. But the state-level recruitment commission constituted a special medical board on May 15, 2023, for the medical examination of the selected 820 candidates to examine their disability percentage. Based on the recommendations of the special medical board, the state-level recruitment commission published a list of 298 candidates who had qualified for the medical examination. Around 413 candidates who had been selected earlier were omitted from this list because their disability condition was not 40% or above. There was a lot of hue and cry over this. The government has now put on hold the appointment of Divyang candidates to 413 posts.

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