Madhya Pradesh to wind up tainted Vyapam

Bhopal: Curtain is set to come down on the scandal-hit Vyapam of Madhya Pradesh that shot to infamy following death of at least 52 people directly or indirectly involved in the scams surfaced in the state-run body entrusted with the responsibility of conducting entrance tests for medical and engineering degree courses.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath has issued a directive to authorities concerned to initiate the process of winding up Vyapam, which is the Hindi acronym for MP Professional Examination Board, and put in place a credible system to replace it.

“The chief minister has ordered to close down Vyapam and put in place an alternative credible system within 15 days”, sources in chief minister’s office told this newspaper on Saturday.

“The discredited Vyapam has become synonymous with corruption and manipulations hurting image of MP government as well as the private medical and engineering colleges in the state. Hence, it has been decided to close down the Vyapam,” sources added.

The previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had rechristened Vyapam with MPPEB to recast its image. However, the exercise had hardly served the purpose.

Vyapam was constituted in 2005 to conduct a raft of entrance examinations for professional courses and government jobs for posts ranging from food inspectors to forest guards.

However, a series of scandals involving admission of undeserving students in some private medical colleges and recruitment of ineligible candidates in some class three and class four jobs had rocked Vyapam.