Punjab doctors cry hoarse over Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) recruitment scam

A number of doctors have moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) after failing to make the cut in the selection of medical officers.

They alleged widespread corruption within the PPSC had resulted in their rejection. A hearing is scheduled on February 17. The doctors claim was based on a 42- page vigilance report into the recruitment of 312 medical officers in 2008- 09, submitted on February 11.

The report stated that the process of appointment of medical officers in Punjab was vitiated with corruption. It also noted that more than Rs. 62 crore was withdrawn from 31 bank accounts opened in the name of 14 medical officers selected by the PPSC. The scam surfaced in April last year after an RTI activist, advocate H. C. Arora, discovered that the PPSC had rejected the applications of a number of meritorious candidates. Instead, a number of those selected to serve as medical officers, had completed their MBBS in more than one attempts.

Not surprisingly, some of them are related to bureaucrats and police officers besides members of the higher and lower judiciary with poor academic records.

The former Punjab DGP K. P. S. Gill had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking an inquiry into the entire selection process. PPSC chairman S. K. Sinha too has moved the court with a demand that the PPSC is a constitutional body and the investigation should be carried out by an independent agency and not the Punjab government.