Over 1,000 Jobless as Adityanath Govt Cancels Recruitments in UP Jal Nigam During SP Tenure

New Delhi: In a decision that has left many jobless, the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Yogi Adityanath on late Monday night announced cancellation of recruitments of junior engineers (JEs) and clerks in UP Jal Nigam that were done during the tenure of Akhilesh Yadav as chief minister.

The announcement was made by Additional Chief Engineer of UP Jal Nigam, IK Srivastav.

The announcement of cancellation of recruitment of 853 junior engineers and 335 clerks in Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam was done citing an SIT investigation that found huge "irregularities".

On the basis of the SIT's report, Srivastava issued an order dismissing the recruitments of 853 JE and 335 clerks from service. It has also been instructed that salary and allowances etc. given to clerks would not be recovered.

What is the Case?

The Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam on June 18, 2016, published an advertisement for direct recruitment to the post of clerk and stenographer. As per the advertisement, the written examination for 335 clerk and 63 stenographer posts was conducted by Aptech, a Mumbai- based agency between August 5 to 7, 2016.

However, some candidates alleged that generally after any exam, the answer sheets were supposed to be uploaded on website so that candidates could register any objections that they had. But, the answer sheets were not uploaded because of which objections, if any, could not be received from the candidates.

The list of candidates for the interview was made available to the Jal Nigam, which did did not take cognizance of the answer sheets not being uploaded. The final results were declared on December 24, 2016, which declared that no candidate was successful in typing examination for stenographer posts.

Opposition Flays Govt

After late Monday’s announcement of cancellation of recruitments, the Samajwadi Party (SP) lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government. "We have enough documents to prove that the examination was done in a rightful manner when our government was in power in the state. The Yogi government is taking revenge from the people as they did not create a single job for people of Uttar Pradesh. Instead of creating jobs, they are snatching job," an SP leader told Newsclick.

The recruitment of these posts in Jal Nigam, during the regime of Akhilesh Yadav, had come under the scanner after some preferred candidates were allegedly given inflated marks and selected. A forensic examination later confirmed that the marks of the preferred candidates were nearly doubled. SP leader Azam Khan was the ex-officio chairman of Jal Nigam board at the time of recruitment.

A junior engineer who was selected at that time told NewsClick, "We have been recruited as per rules and regulations. An advertisement was given in the newspaper by Jal Nigam saying that it was direct recruitment. The government is now taking revenge from Azam Khan and he was the head of the department concerned then,” adding that over a thousand people have lost their jobs in this political fight. “We are helpless. We have family kids and so on, how will we survive now?" , he added.