Another week, another scam. This
time, it’s 15 civil servants now under the scanner for allegedly faking their
way into coveted IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS posts using bogus reservation claims.
The department of personnel and training
(DoPT) has finally stirred, launching an inquiry after persistent complaints,
many filed by RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, pointed to misuse of caste, EWS and
disability certificates. And these aren’t minor goof-ups. Some officers are
suspected of faking PwBD (disability) status, others of falsely claiming SC, ST
or OBC credentials to game the UPSC.
And this isn’t a one-off. Readers
will not have forgotten Puja Khedkar from Maharashtra, the “IAS officer” with
the Audi and security detail who turned out to have a talent for forging not
just caste and disability certificates, but entire bureaucratic narratives?
The real question isn’t just how this happened, but how often it’s
happening undetected. If UPSC and state governments aren’t cross-verifying
certificates before appointments, what’s the point of elaborate eligibility
criteria?
Reservation is meant to level the
playing field, not turn into a backdoor for the well-connected and resourceful.
If civil services are being quietly infiltrated by fraud, trust in the system
crumbles, for both citizens and genuinely marginalised aspirants.
Transparency, real-time verification
and serious consequences are needed urgently. Because if those at the top can
scam the system, what hope do the rest of us have?
Never-ending auditions for UP’s top cop
In Uttar Pradesh, being police chief
has become less of a career pinnacle and more of a recurring guest role —
glamorous, yes, but strictly “acting only”. Rajiv Krishna, a respected
1991-batch IPS officer, is the latest to don the DGP badge. He replaces
Prashant Kumar, who retired on May 31 after a headline-heavy tenure marked by
gallantry medals and more than 300 “encounters”.
Speculation of Mr Kumar’s extension
swirled for weeks. Still, the government kept mum — no official panel sent to
the UPSC, no selection committee under state rules, just silence, then a quiet
handover. Sound familiar? It should. Mr Krishna is now
the fifth acting DGP since 2022. At this point, the title should come
with a folding chair and a one-year calendar!
Never mind that the Supreme Court
laid down clear norms for DGP selection — you know, transparency, merit, due
process. In UP, it seems those rules are more like guidelines. An acting DGP
offers something a permanent one doesn’t: flexibility. Or to put it plainly,
control.
So here we are again — another senior
cop in the hot seat, another procedural shrug from the corridors of power.
Forget permanence. In UP, the most secure thing about the DGP post is how
insecure it’s meant to be.
Haryana’s IAS move hits UPSC wall
Haryana’s bid to fast-track 27 state
civil service officers into the IAS didn’t go as planned. The move has just hit
a serious roadblock, courtesy of the UPSC. And the timing couldn’t be worse —
the state’s already running short on IAS officers.
At the heart of the issue are pending
criminal charges against at least eight of the officers shortlisted for
promotion. And we’re not talking minor disciplinary notes. These are full-blown
charge sheets filed in court. Yet, the state hoped to sneak past that little
detail, arguing that a charge sheet doesn’t count as a final report under
Section 173 of the CrPC. Nice try, but the UPSC wasn’t convinced.
The state tried to argue that a mere
chargesheet isn’t the same as a final report under Section 173 of the CrPC —
and therefore, not enough to derail someone’s promotion. But the UPSC wasn’t
buying it. It called the argument “legally not tenable” and sent the whole list
back, asking Haryana to come up with a cleaner version — one without the
baggage of unresolved legal trouble. Unfortunately, even the officers with no
cases against them are stuck in limbo. It’s all or nothing, it seems.
This adds to Haryana’s IAS headache.
The state needs 215 officers, but has only 171. That’s a big gap, and one that
can’t be filled with murky selections or half-baked legal reasoning. And
clearly, UPSC’s not in the mood to let anyone slip through it with a cloud over
their head.
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