After almost a year Sports Commissioner in Maharashtra took action against the candidates submitting fake sports certificate to join the government jobs, the state has come up with a way to bring in transparency in the process.

Almost a year before, candidates applying for Maharashtra State Public Commission (MPSC) had complained that various employees already in the service have submitted the fake sports certificate and have been appointed under the five per cent sports quota in MPSC services.

The then sports and youth commissioner, Sunil Kendrekar, had taken action against those employees and had also formed a committee to bring in transparency in the process as malpractices were seen in the sports certificates submitted.

As per the new guidelines brought it by the Sports and Youth Commissioner office, the organisers of the state level sports tournaments need to submit the the results to the deputy director office of each region within eight days.

Om Prakash Bakoria, commissioner of sports and youth department of Maharashtra, said, “After the tournament, the organisers or the sports body should send the entire report of the result within eight days of the competition. Also deputy director will maintain the report and also verify the same.”

The Commissioner office has also brought in transparency in this verification process wherein each deputy director in the region will appoint the sports observer for the same. Putting a system at its place, each even will be informed to the deputy director of sports office and the office 15 days before and each event will be attended by the sports observed who will note down the result.

The result and reports sent by the organisers will be also verified by the sports observers appointed and nod will be given to the report.

This will ensure that there will not be any malpractices in the certificate as the previous cases observed that many candidates had given sports certificates based on the events which were never even attended.

The new notice also mentioned, “The malpractices were usually seen in the sports certificate submitted while being employed under the 5 per cent sports quota of MPSC. Candidates gave fake certificates from the organisers of the event which they never had attended. Therefore it is essential that state government should have a data of all the competition, results, number of participants among others.”

Mahesh Bade, one of the MPSC candidate who had complained about the fake certificate, said, “All the candidates who are now giving the MPSC exams have come together almost a year before and had complained about the fake certificate issued. It an injustice faced by other candidates as the actually players reduced their chance to get appointed due to fake ones. We had been doing a follow up with the commissioner and have been demanding to being the transparency in the process.”

A complainant who wished to remain anonymous said, “We had demanded a blanket verification of all the employees since even years who were employed under the sports quota. While the commissioner was supportive and they took the cognisance of our complaint, hope that the new rules and regulations will bring the problem of bogus certificates under control.”