Thousands used fake caste certificates to get govt jobs

Several officers in various government departments and ministries have used fake caste certificates for their appointments but hardly any of them have been punished, revealed a Cabinet minister on Monday.

Responding to a question posed to the prime minister, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanaswami said that as many as 1,832 central government appointments across 52 departments and ministries were detected to have been made on the basis of fake caste certificates. Only 276 erring officers in service with these certificates have been suspended, he added.

This means no action has been taken in 85 per cent cases and no one has been sacked as per the requirements of service rules.

The biggest defaulters were from the department of financial services, comprising the public sector banks and insurance companies, which account for 1,256 such officers who had used forged Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes caste certificates to get their jobs.

The General Insurance Corporation leads with 146 such officers, followed by Central Bank of India and the Indian Overseas Bank. Only 36 of them have been suspended or removed from service, the minister disclosed.

The security forces under the home ministry have registered 91 such cases, followed by the defence ministry (57), BSNL (49), and ITBP (39).

Though all 1,832 culprits may not have been suspended or sacked, the concerned departments have already initiated action against as many as 1,035 of them, Narayanasamy said.

In reply to another question, he asserted that the government complies with the advice of the anti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance Commission by taking the recommended action in 99.6 per cent of cases.

It deviated only in a negligible number of cases -- 16 out of 5,522 cases recommended for action last year, 29 of 5,317 cases in 2009 and 20 out of 4,238 cases in 2008.