A sting operation conducted by a news portal has claimed that money is being exchanged for 3,000 posts of rural development officers in Uttar Pradesh allegedly at the behest of Samajwadi party MLAs and party office bearers.
The jobs in the Rural Development Department were thrown open in July last year and was closed in January this year.
The sting, conducted by news portal Cobrapost.com claims that an advisor in the state government was allegedly caught on camera, discussing about money in exchange for the jobs.
The operation has also named two SP MLAs and others. An SP MLA and a former minister, who was also in the sting did not talk about money, but said that he could recommend candidates to the minister by writing a letter.
He also said that this was for the first time that merit was assigned only 30 marks while 50 marks were alloted for the interview and many people from western Uttar Pradesh would be recruited.
"Rs 8 lakh to Rs 13 lakh were being demanded for the post, and some 2,500 people have already deposited the money. This also shows the strong political involvement in jobs from the district level," said Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal.
The sting has claimed that besides the rural development department, where the malpractice was observed,, recruitments in the Panchayati Raj and police department were being done in a similar manner.
At the same time, some 5,000 vacancies in the police department were declared open recently in the state.
