The Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government has started the process of closing down the MP Professional Examination Board (PEB) or Vyapam that had gained huge infamy after a major scam that hit the entrance and recruitment test agency in 2013.
A new recruitment body—something on the lines of the state employees’ commission—is expected to be set up in place of the agency, sources said.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath is said to have directed that the process of disbanding the agency should be completed within a fortnight. On Sunday, the chief minister confirmed to the media at Chhindwara that the Vyapam would be closed down soon.
Earlier, Home and Technical Education Minister Bala Bachchan told media that the PEB would be restructured as per the pre-poll commitment of the Congress.
The PEB—commonly known as Vyapam after its Hindi acronym—hit headlines across nation when a series of scams, mainly those related to pre-medical entrance tests and some state government job recruitment tests, hit it in 2013.
The deaths of at least 40 persons allegedly involved in these scams made the issue more sinister and Vyapam became synonym for corruption in the state. Though it did not hamper the political ride of the then BJP government in 2013 assembly elections, the issue kept reverberating during the 2018 elections and the Congress in its manifesto had promised serious actions in the cases.
The CBI continues to investigate some of the major cases related to the scam, though foul play in most of the deaths was ruled out. Most of the major accused of the scam including a former minister and some senior ex-officials and political leaders are also out on bail.
The PEB was started as a pre-medical test agency and later merged with a pre-engineering test agency. But now with both these major entrance tests conducted at national level, the PEB is reduced to conducting entrance exams of smaller courses like nursing, agriculture, diploma engineering and others. It also conducts recruitment tests for government jobs other than grade 1 posts.
However, in a bid to do away with the ignominy associated with the agency, the government has decided to disband it and set up an agency that would be transparent and a direct system of recruitment and entrance tests, sources said.
