Selected candidates who did not own a mandatory MBA degree at the time of interview, were suggested to undertake the MBA course and procure a degree years later, after being appointed as managers.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has now ordered a high-level probe into this recruitment scam which involves senior IAS and Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officers of the state.
The Yogi government reportedly acted on the recruitment scam on the basis of a complaint filed with the Chief Minister's Office by MLA of Greater Noida, Dhirendra Singh.
Unravelling the scam, Dhirendra Singh told that rules were thrown to the wind and eligibility criteria was struck down while selecting candidates for posts ranging from managers to peons.
"Netaon ki phone par bhartiyan ki gayi (recruitments were done on telephonic recommendations of politic). The surprising part is that the scam began since 2002, but the respective governments of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) kept on hushing up the inquiries. Two months back, I finally wrote to Yogiji to take action against the corrupt officials who were involved in the scam," said Dhirendra Singh, who also raised another case of grave corruption in Noida Extension.
During enquiry, says Dhirendra Singh, it was discovered that for the post of manager, the minimum eligibility criteria for a candidate was holding an MBA degree. However candidates without an MBA degree were selected as managers. Several years later, the selected candidates completed their MBA studies.
"Similarly in class-three and class-four jobs, the eligibility level was downgraded. Instead of 12th standard, candidates who passed only 10th or eighth standard were gifted government jobs," said the MLA.
According to a senior IAS officer of UP cadre, over 58 such recruitments have come to light. The enquiry wrapped under the files reveals that norms were brazenly kept aside while selecting unqualified candidates.
"The then officers of the Greater Noida Authority seem to have budged under the pressure of the politic. It is a scam where mistakes were committed in black and white on the files," the officer revealed.
Surprisingly, when Mulayam Singh Yadav succeeded Mayawati as Chief Minister in 2003 he instructed the CEO of Greater Noida, Brijesh Kumar to launch a probe into the recruitment scam.
Sources said that Brijesh Kumar had recommended cancelling the recruitments after conducting an enquiry. However, in a turn of political events, Mayawati once again became Chief Minister in 2007. It is alleged that on instructions of Mayawati, the files of the scams were pushed under the carpet.
Sources said that senior officers involved in the scam also tried to hush up the matter.
However, a decade later, Adityanath has now announced that action would be taken in the scam which smells of a deep-rooted nexus between corrupt bureaucrats and politic.
( With inputs from IANS )