Change of guard at Delhi and aftermath
SHILLONG: Trouble is beckoning Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh with the State BJP is poised to take up the education scam with the Centre.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma will also come under scanner for allegedly shielding his Cabinet colleague despite a CBI report indicting her for destroying the original merit list of government teachers’ recruitment results and preparing a fresh list, illegally..
Prior to the Lok Sabha polls, the State BJP had hinted that the education scam would be taken up if NDA came to power in Delhi.
The state general secretary of BJP Dipayan Chakraborty said that at a time when the services of several ‘tainted’ teachers were terminated, the Chief Minister has taken no action against Apareen.
“We will follow up the matter and if needed, we will agitate,” Chakraborty said.
Though several FIRs against Ampareen were filed, police are yet to act.
Chakraborty said that since no investigating agency whether it is CBI or police has given any clean chit to Ampareen, she should step down till a fair probe is completed.
“The Chief Minister should also be held responsible since he has not taken any step to remove the minister from the cabinet,” Chakraborty said.
The issue of illegal appointments in LP schools in Meghalaya came to the fore in 2010 following an RTI query by the aggrieved teachers which revealed large scale manipulation in the results.
Subsequently FIRs were filed against those who were involved in the scam.
This followed filing of petition in the erstwhile Shillong bench of Gauhati High Court by over hundred applicants which resulted in the court ordering CBI inquiry in 2011.
The CBI which submitted the report in March 2012 had named Ampareen Lyngdoh for her alleged role in tampering the mark sheets of eligible candidates.
In a delaying tactic, the Government sought the intervention of the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court to quash the CBI probe in June 2012.
However, the Division Bench of High Court asked the Education department to constitute a high-level scrutiny committee in August 2012.
The education department formed the State Level Scrutiny Committee which recommended the termination of services of as many as 246 teachers, but the Committee was silent on Ampareen.
In an embarrassment to the education department, the Supreme Court on April 21 this year made the State Level Scrutiny Committee invalid and also cancelled the order of termination of the services of the teachers under Shillong centre.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court had referred to the submission of Mukul Rohatgi, the senior counsel for the petitioners, that the “CBI report had indicated that high officials including the Minister were involved in the scam”.
Rohatgi, also made a submission before the Supreme Court that ” High Level Committee included the officers against whom certain observations have been made in the CBI report”.
He had also argued that there was no justification for limiting the inquiry only to five centers (Shillong, Jowai, Amlarem, Tura and Dadenggre).
Based on this, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Government and cancelled the earlier order of the Division Bench of Gauhati High Court regarding the formation of the State Level Scrutiny Committee.