Getting Govt Jobs in Madhya Pradesh Becoming a Distant Dream

Bhopal: For aspirants striving for government jobs in Madhya Pradesh, 2024 may not be ideal. 

It became evident when, on December 31, 2023, the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission [MPPSC] published an advertisement to hire 60 second-grade officers [group B] in 2024, the lowest in the decade. The commission advertised the posts for only seven departments, including 15 posts for deputy collectors and 22 posts for deputy superintendent of police. 

Like the 2024 calendar year, in the last five years, between 2019 and 2023, the commission issued advertisements for only 1808 vacancies for second-grade officers. Yet, the recruitment process for 2019 and 2020 has not been completed, complained aspirants.  

Apart from allegations of corruption and irregularities in the competitive examinations, the dispute over 27% OBC reservation, the rising court litigations and the recent controversy over the Patwari exam have almost put recruitment on hold in the state.

After the opposition, Congress raked up the issue of foul play in the recruitment of 6,000 patwaris in July 2023 -- four months before the assembly elections -- chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a probe led by retired Justice of High Court Rajendra Kumar Verma. But the probe team has given several extensions, and even after six months, it's still on.  

There are two agencies in the state that hire government employees- the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board [MPESB] and the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission. MPPSC is tasked with hiring second-grade officers, while MPESC is responsible for hiring grade-three and some grade-four employees.  

Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board was previously known as Vyapam, which was renamed thrice after it landed into controversy in 2013 and became infamous as Vyapam Scam. 

"Since the Patwari examination controversy and in view of an ongoing dispute over 27% OBC reservation, the recruitment agencies have withheld all the recruitment process," said a senior officer of the Employee Selection Board. 

"Besides, owing to the probe, the department can't assign new projects to the Bangalore-based private company Eduquity Career Techno Pvt Ltd, who was hired by the Board to conduct online exams, for their alleged involvement."

The Board hired Eduquity Career Techno Pvt Ltd after the name of a previous private company surfaced in the recruitment of agriculture officers in February 2021.

Employee Selection Board, which was then known as the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), declared the results for the recruitment of agriculture officers on 862 posts in February 2021, but when candidates alleged foul play as all the topper belonged to one college of Gwalior, the government launched the probe and later cancelled the examination.

400+ Litigations Against MPPEB and ESB 

The allegations of foul play in various recruitment examinations have forced aspirants to seek the intervention of the High Courts. 

According to Madhya Pradesh High Court data, since 2019, the three benches of Madhya Pradesh High Courts have faced 430 petitions related to answer keys, wrong answers being allegedly marked as correct, deletion of questions leading to non-selection of candidates, merit list issues, changing rules after publishing advertisement, age relaxation, reservation roster, and two-list formula to weed out the problem of ongoing 27% OBC reservation.

The data shows that 223 cases are still pending before all three benches of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and four cases in the Supreme Court. 

Even though the Kamalnath-led Madhya Pradesh government in March 2019 increased the OBC quota to 27% from 14% in the state. Amalgamation of politics worsened the situation, and the decision to continue the recruitment on 27% reservation is pending before the High Court.  

When contacted, a senior officer of the MPPSC, R Panchbhai, said, "The court cases have increased because of 27% Other Backward Category issue."

A litigant, Akash Pathak, whose case led to the quashing of amended examination rules, pointed out, "The commission, which is a constitutional body, has failed to follow examination rules properly, leading to rise in litigations causing emotional, mental, financial loss to aspirants."

Unfulfilled Promises Against New Promises

Unemployment was one of the burning issues in the recently concluded Assembly elections, as the state has over 41.87 lakh registered unemployed youths.  

To stifle the issue, then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that he would fill over 1.17 lakh government posts in one year in his Independence Day 2022 speech at Bhopal's Lal Parade Ground. However, The government data shows that only 58,631 were hired for grades C and D, including contractual and National Health Mission staff. The results of close to 35,000 posts are pending after the Patwari recruitment exam triggered controversy. Both recruitment agencies have yet to publish the advertisements for the remaining posts.

"Against 1.17 lakh posts, the commissions only hired half of the post, which also includes contractual," says the leader of the opposition, Umang Singar. In the poll manifesto, Congress promised an overhaul of recruitment agencies to fill all the vacancies, including the backlogs and waive the application form fee. 

The Shivraj Singh-led BJP government was left red-faced on employment issues when, in March 2023, on the question of Congress MLA Mevaram Jatav, in a written reply in the Assembly, the then Minister Yoshodhra Raje Scindia stated that the employment offices set up across Madhya Pradesh have been able to provide jobs to only 21 men since April 2020.

Like Congress, the BJP, in the poll manifesto, has promised to fill 2.5 lakh vacant posts in the next five years. The officials of the agencies say that the 27% OBC reservation issue and court litigation are the biggest 'roadblocks'.

It has been just a month since the formation of the new government, but the aspirants are banking on the "Modi Ki Guarantee" with the hope that the government will conclude the hiring within the stipulated time. 

ACS Malay Shrivastava, chairman of the Staff Selection Board, was unavailable for comments.