Wednesday, 08 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ajay Kothiyal has accused the state government of extorting money in the name of providing employment to unemployed youths through outsourced companies in various departments.
Kothiyal arrived at secretariat on Tuesday with a tiffin box to “talk about” the security guard job he claimed has been offered to him by a Lucknow-based company A-Square underthe Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) department in ex-servicemen quota.
Kothiyal said that the WECD department has hired the company to outsource employees and he had applied through the same company for a job with his XII class mark sheet to get to know about the hiring system. After he applied for the job, he received a call from the company that asked him to donate an amount of Rs 25,000 to a non-governmental organisation. After he transferred this amount to the account of the said NGO, the company sent him an appointment letter even without checking his background, averred Kothiyal. “The company and the NGO are run by the same person. The company uses this donation tactic to extort money from desperate unemployed locals who want jobs. As per the Central Government rules, it is mandatory to consider and verify the experience and competence of the candidate for the job before being hired but the said company sent me the appointment letter after they received the amount they had asked for,” said Kothiyal. Kothiyal reached secretariat with a tiffin box to “talk about” his job and questioned the additional secretary of the WECD department VK Mishra about the issue. However, Mishra said that he is new in the department and has no knowledge of such practice but assured that the department will look into the matter.
Kothiyal alleged that such corrupt practices persist in other departments too who hire outsourced employees through such companies which is not possible without the backing of ministers or officials. “This is not the first case where such discrepancies have been highlighted before the government. Many such cases have come to light in the past as well but no investigation was done by authorities. How is it possible that no one in the government is aware of such practices? Authorities took no cognisance of past cases that indicate that such practices are happening at the behest of the state government ministers,” alleged Kothiyal. He said that he has been offered the job of a security guard so now he will guard the rights of the youth in the state. He asserted that if the government fails to blacklist this company within 48 hours, AAP will stage a state-wide protest with the youths.
