Raipur. Forty-two employees who became commercial tax inspectorsin the state's State Tax (GST) departmentwill now have to return to their former positions. All of these employees previously held clerical positions. They were appointed commercial tax inspectors through a limited recruitment examination held in 2021 and 2022. Later, complaints surfaced regarding the examination and selection process , prompting the department to conduct an investigation. The investigation raised several questions about the examination process.

Appointment cancelled: Many answers found to be similar:
Many answers were found to be similar in the answer sheets of the selected employees. In some cases, after re-examination, it was also revealed that the marks had increased. Apart from this, the record of which employees had appeared in the examination was also not found during the investigation. Based on the investigation report, State Tax Commissioner Pushpendra Kumar Meenathe limited recruitment examination of 2021 and 2022. Along with this, the selection of 42 employees based on the examination has also been cancelled. Now all the employees will be sent back to their original clerical posts.

Many irregularities were found in the investigation:
The investigation committee found similar answers in the answer sheets of many selected candidates. Some answers were found to be very similar to the model answers. Similarity in answers was also found in questions related to GST sections and rules. In some mathematics questions, candidates had written the answers directly without showing the rough work. Similarly, in the essay asked on the biography of Dr. Khubchand Baghel, answers of some selected candidates were also found to be similar. During the investigation, the attendance register of the examination centre was not found. In such a situation, the department did not have the original record to show which candidates had appeared in the examination.

There's no complete record of how the merit list was determined:
The investigation also revealed that a consolidated exam mark sheet hadn't been compiled. This made it difficult to clearly determine each candidate's score and the basis for the merit list. The answer sheets lacked coding, preventing the examiner from identifying the candidate. This meant that the identity of the candidate could have been revealed during the review process.