PM Modi sitting on complaint of appointment scam at NIMHANS

In a case of alleged irregularities in appointment at one of the country’s premier health institutes, reports have surfaced that questions of the examination for hiring of staff nurses at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) were leaked on WhatsApp.

What is more shocking is that from the institute’s administration to the highest offices in the country are in the know of the case but appear to be have turned a blind eye.

The examination was conducted on 3 June and ever since, the NIMHANS Employees Association, a registered body, has red-flagged the leak through letters sent to the institute’s Director, Union Health Minister JP Nadda and right up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, the institute has rubbished the allegations while the Prime Minister and the Health Minister have conveniently ignored the letters.

The first letter

On 3 June, around 9000 applicants appeared for the examination for 160 posts at centres across the country. On 5 June, the Association wrote in letters to the Director as well as Nadda that at least 89 questions of the said exam were leaked. A copy of the leaked document was also attached with the letter.

The Association alleged that some candidates might have been favoured for selection and the leaked questions might have been provided to them. The letter appealed to the minister to cancel the 3 June exam and appoint a new Registrar at the institute.

Second appeal

The Director did act upon that letter but set up an internal inquiry committee to look into the allegations. The Association once again wrote to the Director on 7 July slamming the committee, saying that since the members of the committee were all from the institute’s administration, they can not be expected to conduct an impartial probe.

Additionally, the committee lacked any representatives from police or CBI, technical expert and even a legal expert, the Association noted. It also alleged that digital video recorder of surveillance cameras in the room of the chief of examinations were suscpiciously removed.

Finally, an appeal to the PM

Frustrated, the association wrote directly to the PM on 16 July, stating categorically that NIMHANS administration was trying to cover up the entire case.

According to the association, the question paper was set by a retired employee and conducted by a private company, Sify Technologies Pvt Ltd.

Interestingly, Sify grabbed the headlines in May when the CBI registered an FIR against 10 of its employees, in connection with another question paper leak. This leak pertained to the Combined Graduate Level Exam 2017 Tier II conducted by the Staff Selection Commission.

The Sify connection

Sify had conducted this examination too and the CBI believes these employees of the company, in cahoots with government officials, were running a racket of leaking papers of examinations that various government departments had outsourced to the company.

In its letter to the PM, the NIMHANS staff association also referred to the SSC CGL case and Sify’s allegedly dubious role in it. It has expressed apprehensions about a Rajasthan connection, stating that a large number of candidates selected after this examination appear to hail from Rajasthan, which is where the SSC CGL scam also allegedly originated.

The association appealed to the PM to bring the matter to the notice of the CVC and CAG and order a CBI probe. Neither the health minister nor the prime minister have responded to the association’s letters, even as NIMHANS has rubbished the allegations.

In fact, the institute has even gone ahead and published the results of the examination and conducted skill test/counselling of the shortlisted candidates on 23 July. This indicates that NIMHANS is in no mood to pay any heed to the association’s complaint and the PM’s silence is encouraging the institute.