from [MPPEB] VYAPAM to VYAPAM scam.....................
MEANING OF VYAPAM.........
Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), popularly known as Vyapam, (an abbreviation of its Hindi name Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal, is the professional examination board of Madhya Pradesh, India. It conducts various tests for admission to professional courses and streams. It is the largest examination conducting body of Madhya Pradesh and comes directly under the Directorate of Technical Education (Government of Madhya Pradesh). The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board is a self-financed, autonomous incorporated body of State Govt. The Government has re-constituted the Board of Directors for taking decisions on policy and organizational matters through Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board Act. 2007.The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board was initially set-up as Pre Medical Test Board by Government of Madhya Pradesh in the year 1970. Later, in the year 1981, Pre Engineering Board was constituted. Soon after, in the year 1982 both these Boards were amalgamated and named as Professional Examination Board (P.E.B.). Professional Examination Board by Govt. Order No.1325-1717-42-82 dated 17.04.1982 has been assigned the responsibility of conducting entrance tests for admission to various colleges in the state
Examinations conducted by Vyapam...............
Vyapam conducts the following examinations:...............
- MP-PMT|Pre-Medical Test
- Pre-Polytechnic Test
- [Pre-Architecture Test]
- Pre-Agriculture Test
- Pre-P.G. Entrance Test
- Pre-M.C.A. Entrance Test
- Management Entrance Test
- Pre-General Nursing Talent Search Test
- B.A., L.L.B. (Hons) Entrance Test
- Pre-BEd Examination
- Pre-Ayurvedic, Homeopathic & Unani Test (P.A.H.U.T)
- MPSLET Test
- Police Recruitment Test
- Typing paper Hindi
Vyapam Scam.......
Cases of irregularities in these entrance tests had been reported since mid-1990s, and the first FIR was filed in 2000. However, until 2009, such cases were not thought to be part of an organized ring. When major complaints surfaced in the pre-medical test (PMT) in 2009, the state government established a committee to investigate the matter. The commitee released its report in 2011, and over a hundred people were arrested by the police.It was in national news for the Vyapam scam, which was a massive admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen. After the scam was unearthed, 1700 people were arrested, including the state's former education minister Laxmikant Sharma and MPPEB's exam controller Pankaj Trivedi.The dramatic turn of events in the Professional Examination Board (PEB) aka Vyapam scam has left the Congress stunned. The latest verdict handed by the state High Court seems to have turned the tables on the Congress which had staked its prestige in trying to nail chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the key person behind the scam. Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh had depended on a cyber-expert, whose services were earlier hired by the Indore police and the special task force (STF) of the state police that was constituted to investigate the scam that runs into several thousand crores.
Response to scam..............
The Madhya Pradesh Government formed a Special Task Force (STF) to investigate the scam in 2012. The Congress-led opposition expressed concern over impartiality of the STF and demanded a CBI probe, but the government declined to comply with this demand. The opposition also pressed for resignation of the Chief Minister on moral grounds in view of alleged involvement of his ministers and relatives. On the other hand, the Chief Minister had termed it as “mudslinging” by the opposition due to the defeat in Lok Sabha election 2014.On November 5, 2014, Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the Congress leader Digvijay Singh's petition for CBI probe and instead ordered setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to act as a watchdog for the court. The SIT is a 3-member team chaired by Justice Chandresh Bhushan, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
As many as 720 students and parents have been booked in 850 cases registered so far in connection with the Vyapam admission and recruitment scandal in Madhya Pradesh. The probe, hit by allegations of evidence-tampering to shield the powerful, has been stepped up with investigators sifting through call details of suspects. Sources in the Special Task Force, which conducted the initial investigation and is now assisting the High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, said most of the arrested students were from the backward districts of the state, including Jhabua and Morena.
Key arrests................
By June 2015, more than 200 people had been arrested in connection with the scam
- Laxmikant Sharma, ex-Education Minister (M.P)
- O.P.Shukla
- Sudhir Sharma
- R. K. Shivhare, Suspended IPS Officer
- Ravikant Dwivedi, Suspended Joint Commissioner (Revenue)
- Dr. Jagdish Sagar
- Dr Sanjeev Shilpakar
- Sudhir Rai, Santosh Gupta, Tarang Sharma
MPPEB employees
- Pankaj Trivedi, MPPEB Examination Controller
- CK Mishra, Officer, Vyapam
- Nitin Mohindra / Nitin Mahendra (Principal System Analyst) and Ajay Sen (Senior System Analyst)
- Dr. G S Khanuja
- Mohit Chaudhary
- Narendra Dev Azad (Jatav)
- Dr. Vinod Bhandari
- Animesh Akash Singh
- Jitendra Malviya
- against Governor Ram Naresh Yadav
Allegations of threats to whistleblowers and activists
- Anand Rai
- Ashish Chaturvedi
- Prashant Pandey
Deaths...................
A number of people connected to the scam and its investigation, died during the course of investigation. The opposition parties and activists alleged that several of these deaths happened under suspicious circumstances. In 2015, the Special Task Force (STF) submitted a list to High Court, naming 23 people who are believed to have died "unnatural deaths". According to the STF, most of these deaths took place before it took over the investigation in July 2013. Some media reports claimed that 40+ people associated with the scam had died under mysterious cirumstances. The state's Home Minister Babulal Gaur dismissed the allegations, and claimed that the deaths were natural.
According to the High-Court Special Investigation Team (SIT), 32 of the 'racketeers' in 25-30 age-group, died in suspicious circumstances since the investigation started in 2012. The SIT officials raised concerns that the arrested people were naming those who were already dead, in order to mislead the probe.
CURRENT STATUS.............
The Vyapam deaths are a serious setback for the popular Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and represents a rare vulnerability in the political armour of the earthy politician who has been on a winning spree since his installation as CM in 2005.
The timing of the mysterious deaths could not have been worse. They coincide with the attack on the Modi government over the Lalit Modi scam, and can be handy for the opposition to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi's achievement in ensuring a scam-free year at the Centre.
With Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje under fire over her links with Lalit Modi, the adverse spotlight on Chouhan can help Congress assault the peripheries before it gets ready for an attack on the Centre.
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