Chandigarh: The opposition Congress and BJP on Thursday targeted the AAP govt over the Punjab and Haryana high court’s stay on recruitment to 41 block programme manager and 44 cluster coordinator posts under the Punjab State Rural Livelihoods Mission, alleging irregularities and lack of transparency in the selection process.Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the recruitment process, initiated in January with results declared in February, was challenged by applicants over alleged irregularities in interview marks. The high court summoned the recruitment records and constituted a committee of lawyers and rural development department officials to examine them.Warring said the committee found irregularities in the allocation of marks, following which the court stayed the recruitment process until the next hearing. He linked the development to the high court’s recent intervention in the pharmacist officer recruitment process.Warring accused the AAP govt of “sabotaging” recruitments and said it was guilty not only of “paper leaks” but also of compromising selection processes.“It is a matter of a few months more before the Congress govt will be formed and everything will be accounted for and responsibility fixed,” he said.BJP Punjab president Kewal Singh Dhillon also questioned the transparency of the recruitment. He said 30 of the 100 marks prescribed for selection were allotted for interview, qualification and experience, but individual marks were not disclosed when the results were announced. Only the total marks were displayed, he said.Dhillon said the high court-appointed committee found serious irregularities in the award of marks and that the court had also questioned the govt’s decision to entrust the examination to a private company allegedly lacking the requisite recognition and competence.He said repeated recruitment controversies, including paper leaks and irregularities, were hurting Punjab’s youth, who spend years preparing for govt jobs.“Instead of ensuring a transparent and fair recruitment system for the youth, the govt continues to evade responsibility whenever its recruitment processes come under a cloud,” Dhillon said.
