Bihar's Munnabhais are backed by babu

PATNA: Munnabhai made it to a medical college by making a doctor ghostwrite the entrance test papers for him. Bihar’s Munnabhais don’t complete even this basic formality. And though Munnabhai threw in the towel in a huff, at least four Bihari aspirants, illegally admitted to a medical college, have passed out to become doctors.
In February 1999, IAS officer V S Dubey, who also served as chief secretary of Bihar and, later, Jharkhand, wrote to the then health commissioner, A K Choudhary, that the four candidates nominated by the Bihar health department for admission to MGM College, Jamshedpur under a special quota, did not fulfil the eligibility criteria.The nominations be cancelled, wrote Dubey, then a member of Bihar’s Board of Revenue.
MGM College is now in Jharkhand. Before Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar as a separate state in 2000, undivided Bihar’s Board of Revenue secretary used to conduct the combined competitive entrance examinations in his capacity as controller of examinations.
The state’s health department used to nominate the four special quota candidates.
For the first-year MBBS batch of 1998-99, the health department recommended the names of Sangita Kumari, daughter of R K Pandey (roll no 440157); Saket Singh, son of Sitaram Singh (roll no 443971); Jyoti Verma, daughter of IAS officer S S Verma (roll no 443971) and Sandhya Mishra, daughter of Jagdish Mishra.
Verma was recently suspended after police raids on his premises unearthed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Dubey pointed out that as per the Bihar Joint Entrance Competitive Examination Act, 1995, the nominees’ names must figure on decent ranks in the merit list of candidates who secured minimum pass marks in the entrance test. However, only Sangita’s name figured in the merit list — that too at tail end while Saket Singh and Jyoti had failed to make it to the merit list. The fourth nominee, Sandhya, did not even write the exam.
Also, the four quota seats were for aspirants domiciled in Bihar. But the home address of Sandhya shows she is a resident of Lucknow, Dubey wrote.
Dubey’s letter went unheeded. And now that the matter has surfaced, it has created a flutter in top bureaucratic circles, more so because the then health secretary Choudhary has since been elevated as Bihar chief secretary. On the plea of the state’s NDA government, he was in fact granted three months’ extension in service by the PMO recently.
When reached on Thursday, chief secretary Choudhary said he does not remember the case and would react only after looking into the files.
Health minister Chandra Mohan Rai appeared lost. "The matter is related to activities that took place during the RJD regime. The situation has also changed with the Jamshedpur medical college now falling in Jharkhand," he said.
When reminded that Choudhary is still an officer of the state government, the minister promised, "If somebody makes a formal complaint, the government will certainly look into it."