Scam-tainted Vyapam renamed again within 7 months

Bhopal: Scam-tainted Vyapam, which was renamed as the Staff Selection Board (SSB) in February this year, will now be called the ‘Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board (MP-ESB). The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government has renamed the board twice within a span of seven months, while it is the third time that Vyapam has been renamed since the multi-crore scam broke in 2013.

The state government first rechristened it as the Professional Examination Board (PEB) in 2015. In February this year it was renamed as the Karmchaari Chayan or Staff Selection Board (SSB). Sources claimed that it was renamed after approval from the state cabinet in a bid to repair at least some of the damage to its reputation.

The opposition Congress said the Bharatiya Janata Party government is making all out efforts to hide it’s sins through changing Vyapam’s name again and again. However, their efforts will not work and the Chouhan government will have to face the allegations as it has not only destroyed thousands of youths careers but several innocent people have been killed.

“By changing the name of Vyapam for the third time the sins of this institution, which has become a monument to corruption, can not be forgotten nor can the nexus of politicians, officers and education mafia involved in it,” said K. K. Mishra, head of the media cell of the Madhya Pradesh Congress, who had earlier accused Shivraj’s OSD Markam Singh of involvement in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak. The TET was executed by the same department but with a changed name.

The Vyapam scam was an entrance examination, admission and recruitment scam. It was functional since the 1990s and was finally unearthed in 2013. It first rocked the government when it surfaced that candidates bribed officials to use imposters to take exams on their behalf.

Apart from all the entrance examinations held for state employees, Vyapam has been conducting the recruitment of class III and IV employees as well. Vyapam also used to conduct only Pre-Medical Test and Pre-Engineering Test till 2004.