Venod Sharma, supporters lay siege on HSSC office

PANCHKULA: Announcing his newly-formed outfit Jan Chetna Party's (JCP) arrival on the political scene of Haryana, former Union minister Venod Sharma and his supporters on Wednesday laid siege on the office of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) office for five hours to protest against 'corruption' and 'biased job selection process' by the panel. The five-hour drama ended after Sharma and his men courted arrest, following talks with commissioner of police AK Singhal, and deputy commissioner RR Fuliya.
The Staff Selection Commission is a statutory body, and this is for the first time that a political party has questioned its credibility. The JCP men gate-crashed into the premises when interviews for the visually impaired candidates for various posts were in progress. Around 250 candidates were to be interviewed on Wednesday. When contacted, Haryana Staff Selection Commission chairman Vijay Chugh refused to comment on the incident, but maintained that the selection process is transparent and anybody can get information under the RTI Act.
Before courting arrest, Sharma told Vijay Chugh that the commission has lost its credibility following allegations of corruption in appointments, and all the staff of the commission should resign. The JCP men reached the commission's office after Sharma addressed a state-level convention of youth workers at Indradhanush Auditorium, and the decision to stage a protest outside the commission's office was taken when Sharma discussed the problem of unemployment in north Haryana.
"There is a limit for tolerance, and we will go to any extent to protect the interests and careers of youth from north Haryana. We have carefully scanned the list of recent as well as earlier selections, where the number of youth from north Haryana (Kalka to Samalkha) was almost negligible," said Sharma. The incident also exposed the intelligence failure of the Haryana Police, as it took 45 minutes for them to reach the venue.