New Delhi: After the real Anamika Shukla, who was being impersonated by other women to fraudulently get jobs, finally surfaced, the Congress on Thursday sought an apology for her from the Uttar Pradesh Government and demanded a judicial probe into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 69,000 teachers.
Slamming the Yogi Adityanath government, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a tweet said: "This entire scam was done with the connivance of people who are a part of this system, under the nose of BJP Government, but they kept it suppressed for a year. Now, the government will have to answer to those hard working students who were successful in these exams."
Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said, "We receive many pleas from lay denizens in UP to help them as the state government is insensitive to their plight and disconnected from the ground realities. It is a travesty that people who excel in their education are not being employed, while those who have stolen others' identity are drawing public salaries."
The bizzare case of Anamika Shukla has once again highlighted the corruption in the State's education system, when it was disclosed that the real one is actually unemployed and six other teachers, using her name, are receiving the salary in schools.
"In this matter, Anamika Shukla has been widely defamed. UP Govt should apologize to her and remedy the damage by providing her Government job as a compensation," said Shukla. He also demanded a judicial probe into the matter, while alleging that the BJP-led state governments, including Vyapam scam, has always been suppressed by disallowing investigation.
Rajeev Shukla alleged that the racket has been going on in Uttar Pradesh for quite some time and the Congress has been demanding justice for Anamika Shukla, and said that now the Basic Education Minister Satish Dwivedi has also accepted that a racket was going on in the state.
Read: Anamika Shukla case: Brahmins being targeted by Yogi govt, says Cong
"Dwivedi also accepted that Anamika Shukla's name was used by many people to take jobs. So what action is the state government going to take now?" Rajeev Shukla asked.
"We demand a probe by a Supreme Court judge for teachers recruitment and fake teacher scam to find out who all are involved," the Congress leader said, adding that even the issue of fake teachers came up in Lalitpur and Shrawasti districts of the state.
Stepping up his attack on the BJP, Shukla added, "BJP's working style has been one of shrill accusations while suppressing any oversight and investigation of their corrupt modus operandi and scams, which have cheated and impoverished the Indian taxpayer."
Priyanka Gandhi on June 9 had demanded the state government apologise to Anamika Shukla who is still unemployed. She had also likened the teachers'' recruitment irregularity to the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh. Real Anamika Shukla, in whose name a teacher in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly drawing salary from 25 places and had garnered more than Rs 1 crore came forward on June 9.
Read: UP teacher exam 'topper' doesn't know who's the President of India!
After the scam was unearthed, Anamika Shukla went to meet officials on Tuesday in Gonda where she said she applied at many places but could not attend counselling.
The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered that the Special Task Force (STF) will now investigate the scam in recruitment of assistant teachers in the state. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the UP government to keep 37,349 posts of assistant teachers vacant, thereby staying the ongoing selection process of teachers in the state.
(With inputs from IANS)
