When AAP’s Uttarakhand chief ministerial candidate Col (retd) Ajay Kothiyal reached Secretariat on Tuesday holding a box of sweets, little did the staff know that he had received a contractual job of a security guard at the state’s women empowerment and child development department. He said he paid Rs 25,000 as “donation” to the agency which outsources manpower for the department.
A case of corruption has come to the fore after a few youngsters alleged that they had to pay money to an NGO in order to get hired in the department. “To cross check the allegation, I applied for the job as a common candidate and paid Rs 25,000 as demanded. In exchange I got an appointment letter. This suggests rampant corruption going on in the hiring process,” said Kothiyal who shot to fame after handling reconstruction works at Kedarnath following 2013 deluge.
The offer letter issued to Kothiyal by Lucknow-based ‘A Square’ outsourcing firm that provides manpower to the department clearly stated that he has been “selected provisionally for the post of security guard at Women Welfare and Child Development department at Champawat”.
The Rs 25,000 “donation”, which Kothiyal paid to the agency, was in the name of an ‘Darpan’ NGO. The transaction details revealed that the money was routed to the NGO which has Ajay Pratap Singh as president and Pragya Sinha as the member. Both the members are also associated with the outsourcing agency and were not available for comments.
Rekha Arya, the minister for women and child welfare, said she will act “only when she receives a written complaint”.
It is important to mention that Arya had a tiff with the departmental secretary a couple of months ago when the latter reportedly refused to hire manpower firm as the Uttarakhand government has its own hiring agency.
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