The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, May 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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28 PCS officers lose jobs
18 nominated ones reverted
Tribune News Service

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh addresses a Press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. — Tribune photo Mukesh Aggarwal

New Delhi, May 23
The Punjab Government has proceeded against 46 PCS (Executive) officers, now under probation, and who were selected in 1999 during the tenure of controversial Punjab Public Service Commission Chairman Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is in the Capital to attend the AICC session, said his government had “dispensed with the services” of 28 direct appointees to the PCS while 18 who were nominated had been sent to their previous positions. The decision, which was taken by the Punjab government yesterday, was notified today, Capt Amrinder Singh said.

He said that today’s decision was in step with the decisions taken earlier to terminate the services of those selected during the tenure of Mr Sidhu. He said that about 4,000 selections had been made during the tenure of the controversial PPSC chief and the government had already cancelled appointments of those 634 persons who were not given appointment letters.

The Chief Minister maintained that the decision to dispense with the services of 28 PCS (Executive) officers had been taken in line with the recent directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the Punjab government “not to confirm in service anyone appointed during the tenure of Mr Sidhu.”

“We have set ourselves on course to rid the state of corruption,” the Chief Minister, said, adding that people who had paid

money to get jobs were as much to be blamed. He said the government was thinking of ways to take action under relevant service rules against those whose services had been confirmed but were found guilty of paying bribe. He said the government was awaiting judgement of the High Court on the issue.

The Chief Minister said the Vigilance Department did not have enough personnel to cope with the number of corruption cases being unearthed but the cases would be dealt with “one by one” to clean up the house.

Asked about the situation on the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab, the Chief Minister said that six shells had fallen in the Bamiyal area of Gurdaspur district but no major loss of life and property had been reported. He said some migration from the border areas had taken place in Amritsar and Ferozepore and the Deputy Commissioners there had been instructed to take care of the people. “There is no fear and the morale of the people is high,” he said.

List of 46 officers

CHANDIGARH: The following is the list of the 28 PCS (executive branch officers) of the 1999 batch whose services have been dispensed with under rule 23 of the PCS (EB) rules, 1976 with immediate effect.

Kuljit Kaur, Hargunjit Kaur, Bikramjit Singh Shergill, Jiwan Kumar Garg, Deepak Gakkar, Amarbir Singh, Bharat Bhushan, Kamal Kumar, Rahul Gupta, Harsushinderpal Singh Brar, Randip Singh, Rubinderjit Singh Brar, Surinder Kaur, Amit Talwar, Sukhpreet Singh Sidhu, Jagjit Singh, Sukhwinder Singh Brar, Anita Darshi, Amarjit Singh, Manish Kumar, Rishipal Singh, Gurjit Singh, Jaspal Singh Gill, Rajesh Dhiman, Paramjit Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Harcharan Singh and Rajdeep Singh Brar.

The following is the list of 18 PCS (executive branch officers) who have been reverted to original posts with immediate effect.

Inderpreet Singh Kahlon, Narinder Singh, Inderbir Kaur Mann, Bhupinderjit Singh, Parvinder Pal Singh, Parshotam Singh Sodhi, Balraj Kaur, Gurdev Singh Randhawa. Jarnail Singh-II, Balbinder Kumar, Jasbir Singh Toor. Harbans Lal Bansal, Baljit Singh Sandhu, Jaspal Singh-II. Om Parkash Verma, Jarnail Singh-I, Rajinder Singh Sidhu and Pritpal Singh Grewal.

The Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr Y.S. Ratra, told The Tribune that all above PCS officers in the present case were appointed by the PPSC during the tenure of Mr Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu as chairman. The action has been taken after examining all legal aspects, he added including certain rulings of the Supreme Court.

PCS papers were on sale in ’93, ’95
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 23
Even as Jagman Singh, one of the touts of Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Chairman Ravi Sidhu, used to deliver the question papers of various competitive examinations to the “buyers” at their doorsteps, the question papers were on free sale by a section of employees of the PPSC in connivance with others during the tenure of former Chairman, Bhupinder Singh Sidhu, against whom a Vigilance probe had been launched by the state government.

Information gathered by TNS revealed that during some competitive examinations of the PCS (Executive) prelims in 1993 and the PCS (Judicial) in 1995, the question papers were available at a price.

The employees or their agents used to manage photocopies of the question papers, the previous day and sell the same.

The solved question papers of compulsory subjects like general studies and some optional subjects in PCS (Executive) prelims in 1993 were available at the doorsteps of the aspirants the previous night on the day of that examination. Whether those leaking the question papers were doing it with the consent of their seniors was not yet known.

The name of one of the main players in the question paper leak in the previous PPSC set-up also figured prominently in the ongoing investigation. The educationist, working with a government institution, had actively connived in arranging jobs for the aspirants in lieu of money.

Mr Bhupinder Singh Sidhu could not be contacted despite repeated efforts. His son Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, MLA from Talwandi Sabo, when contacted, said what had been published into a section of the Press was not true.