20,000 govt staff's caste papers under lens

The Gujarat government recently found the caste certificates of 18 Class I officers from tribal community dubious and has issued the order of probe to state scrutiny committee. The tribal development minister Ganpat Vasava had received a number of complaints from the tribal community on fake caste certificates and he directed the officials to verify the certificates of these officials which have been found suspicious. The minister has appointed 14 DySP officials to run further probe in the case.

Later, the government decided to scrutiny 20,000-odd other employees who got the job on reserved seats for tribal candidates by producing the caste certificates.

The minister for tribal development in Gujarat government Ganpat Vasava said, "Our officials verified the certificates of 18 class 1 officials been recruited during the year 2014-15 to be dubious. Now we have ordered the vigilance cells of all the districts to assess the certificates of all the government servants of tribal category and to submit a report to state-level scrutiny committee on the veracity of the certificates."

"We had received several complaints from the tribal community that many government officers and employees got jobs in reserved category for tribal by producing fake certificates. The CM Vijay Rupani and I decided to investigate the issue and now we have ordered the state level committee to scrutiny the certificate of all the government employees of the tribal category," added Vasava.

The nomadic community residing in hamlets of Gir forests are categorised as tribal in Gujarat, but the purported members of nomadic community residing outside the forest area also received caste certificate of tribal community by showing that they were original native of Gir forest. The issue became controversial among other tribal community members and they aggressively protested against Ganpat Vasava last week that pushed the government to initiate the actions.

"We will take actions against employees who produced fake certificate to get job. They will be dismissed and cannot get the government job in future, if found guilty. Criminal actions also will be initiated against them in such case," added the minister. The tribal development commissione held the caste certificate of Morva Hadaf MLA Bhupendra Khant as invalid on Friday. The commissioner who is also ex-officio the head of the scrutiny committee for tribal caste certificate in government issued the order. Khant had contested recently held assembly as independent MLA from schedule tribe reserved seat and won too.

MINISTER SPEAK

Minister for tribal development in Gujarat government Ganpat Vasava said, “Our officials verified the certificates of 18 class-1 officials been recruited during the year 2014-15 to be dubious. We have ordered the vigilance cells to assess the certificates and submit a report to state-level scrutiny committee.”