SSC Exam Scam Part III: SSC, Sachin Chauhan and ‘technical glitches’

SSC’s approach towards Sachin Chauhan lends strength to the suspicion. Chauhan, from Dwarka on the suburbs of Delhi, and with roll number (2201281955) appeared at the Lakshay Online Test Centre, Dwarka on February 21, 2018. And it was the screenshot of his Sifi webpage for the exam (complete with photograph, roll number and centre details etc.) which went viral on the social media the same day. The ‘leaked’ webpage and the answer keys shocked candidates and raised the suspicion that he was being assisted to write his exam by someone with access to the platform he was working on.

But the SSC claimed it was a ‘technical glitch’ and announced that re-examination of the paper would be conducted on March 9, 2018. While protests snowballed, the Commission finally relented and announced that Chauhan was being debarred from taking any examination for the next seven years.

But a fresh Admit Card to Chauhan for taking the re-examination at the same centre was issued by SSC, sparking another round of protest. “When we raised the issue, the SSC website went down for an hour and the Commission released a statement blandly stating that it was a ‘mistake’…for SSC everything is a technical glitch,” quipped Anupam of Swaraj India.

The credibility of both SSC and the CBI have eroded so much that only a Supreme Court monitored investigation would help expose the biggest recruitment racket in India. Sufficient time, meanwhile, has been given to the examination centre and Chauhan himself to cover their track.

When this correspondent visited Sachin Chauhan’s home in Dwarka Sector 26, his wife denied that any Sachin Chauhan lived there. But outside his house, the correspondent met his father Mahendra Singh Chauhan who conceded that Sachin Chauhan indeed lives there. “I challenge them to conduct an examination right now and he will pass with flying colours,” claimed Mahendra. Although MS Chauhan claimed that Sachin wanted to talk to the media and put his side of the story in front of the world, repeated phone calls to him always yielded just one response, “He is not home.”

About Staff Selection Commission

One of the largest recruiting agencies!

The Staff Selection Commission, set up in 1977, conducted tests for 14.8 million candidates for eight posts at over 9029 centres across 127 cities in 2015-16. Only 25,138 candidates were lucky to be selected. An even higher number, 17.8 million, appeared for the tests the previous year, when 58,066 candidates were ostensibly selected. Could the SSC be the world’s largest recruiting agency? Several candidates who cleared the examination though in 2015 claim they are still waiting to be appointed in 2018.

Employees recruited

While the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruits for the Government of India class A staff, the SSC is mandated to recruit Group B (Non-Gazetted) and Group C (Non-technical) employees for ministries, departments and their subordinate offices. From a clerk, stenographer to sub-inspectors in the CBI and central police forces, the entire recruitment is handled by the SSC. With its HQ in New Delhi, it has seven regional offices at Allahabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata and Mumbai. It also has two sub-regional offices at Chandigarh and Raipur.

Examinations

Multi Task Staff (MTS); Combined Higher Secondary Level (CHSL); Combined Graduation Level (CGL); Scientific Assistant Exam; Stenographers Grade ‘C’ and ‘D’ Examination; SSC Constables (GD) in CAPFs, NIA & SSF Examination; Sub Inspector In CPOs Exam; Junior Engineer (Civil & Elect) Examination; Junior Translators (CSOLS) /Junior Hindi Translators Examination; Section Officer (Audit | Commercial) Examination; Food Corporation of India (FCI) Examination; Lower Division Grade Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDC).

The process

Examinations are conducted in tiers. For example; SSC-CGL has four tiers. Tier I, the preliminary exam (objective type); Tier II, Mains (English & Maths); Tier III, Descriptive (English only) and Tier IV, document verification. MTS is conducted in just two tiers; tier I is the objective preliminary test and tier II is the descriptive exam.

This is part III of the three-part story. Click here to access the first part and click here to access the second part of the story

Read full coverage of National Herald on the alleged SSC Exam Scam

SSC Exam Scam: Delhi Metro, toilets, Internet shut down to disperse unemployed

SSC Exam Scam: Police presence increases even as Rajnath assures relief to protestors

SSC Exam Scam: Job seekers reject SSC’s ‘requests’, to continue protest

SSC Exam Scam: Protests spread across the country

SSC Exam Scam: Delhi Police take barber into custody to shut down protests

SSC Exam Scam: 1 candidate, 21 Admit cards, different roll nos. & 1 centre

SSC Exam Scam: 1 person, 700 admit cards; fraudster caught on audio