Team News Riveting
State-run Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron) had come under the scanner in connection with a question paper leak scandal in northeastern state of Assam.
An undertaking of the Government of Kerala, Keltron was awarded a contract to conduct the written examination for the posts of 597 police sub-inspectors in Assam. The question paper got leaked on social media a day prior to the examination on September 20.
More than 66,000 candidates were appearing in the examination. The development not only exposed the paper leak scandal but also put the fate of thousands of candidates in a balance.
More than 10 people have been arrested in connection with the incident so far. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed the police to conduct a thorough probe and spare nobody found to be involved in the case.
Founded in 1973, Keltron is a public sector enterprise owned by the Kerala government and is managed by a board of directors. Its website says it is “India’s first and the largest” state electronics enterprise, producing a “wide range of products from discrete electronics components to complex equipment and system”.
The preliminary reports suggested that the paper got leaked because Keltron awarded subcontracts to two local firms, namely Amain Tech Consultants Private Limited and M/s Akshay Tele Communications.
While the first firm had reportedly been involved in at least two question paper leak scandals involving other departments of the Government of Assam in recent times, the other firm is reported to be operating as a call centre and has no experience of conducting an important examination of this sort.
The Keltron authorities could not be contacted for its version on the issue.
As such, there is ample scope to believe that Keltron “blindly awarded” the sub-contracts at the behest of BJP leaders of Assam, Congress legislature party leader Debabrata Saikia said.
Saikia had written a letter to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan requesting to call for an explanation from the Keltron brass because there was a “serious lapse” on its part for “failing to properly ascertain the track record of the sub-contractors” and such a case has grave ramifications.
Further, the authorities of Keltron may be instructed to exercise extreme caution while conducting similar examinations in Assam in future, because leakage of question papers of recruitment-related examinations has become the norm in Assam under the present BJP-led state government, Saikia said.
