Sr Assistant posts: Candidates allege irregularities, seek probe

A number of candidates for the posts of Senior Assistant in the General Administration have sought a high-level probe into the tests held in January and June this year. Alleging irregularities, the candidates have sought cancellation of the recruitment process and sought action against the guilty. Independent MLAs from Ludhiana, Simarjit Bains and Balwinder Bains had also raised the matter recently, but an inquiry report by the government dismissed the allegations. The candidates have rejected the report saying the government would never do a fair probe against its own officers due to which probe by another agency was required. Gurwinder Singh, Sukhjinder Singh Kang, Rupinder Singh and Talwinder Singh, representatives of the candidates, said many candidates who had got requisite numbers were not called for typing tests whereas many who scored less were called. They alleged three persons belonging to one family got roll numbers in a series and sat together, which suggested that the tests were managed. The inquiry has admitted lapses in allotting roll numbers to the family members together, saying it was a coincidence, but it claimed no copying was done as one of those failed the test. The candidates said during the seating plan, the two who passed were at the end of a row while the third got a seat in the front of the next row and thus failed. The candidates have written to the Chief Secretary and pointed out that the typing test was not uniform. They alleged they got different sentences to type. While one had short words, others had long and complicated words, which took more time. Moreover, the candidates were not told about the font to be used for typing. “We have information that some select candidates knew about the fonts, but it was not specified in the advertisement for the recruitment. However, a similar test conducted by Punjab Agro Corporation specified the type font clearly. Other departments also specify it,” a candidate alleged.