Bhubaneswar: Raising the issue of fake certificate racket in Odisha Assembly, senior Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja trained his gun at the state government, alleging that some ruling BJD leaders are involved in it.
Raising the issue during zero hour, the Kantabanji MLA said fake certificate rackets are active in Balangir and other parts of the state which have put future of meritorious students at stake.
Stating that police have busted the fake certificate racket in Balangir and arrested 19 people including a coaching centre owner and mastermind of the racket Manoj Mishra and his aide Alok Udgata, he claimed the coaching centre was working as a hub of fake certificate manufacturing and the racket was spread across the country.
He claimed that certificates of 40 reputed colleges and universities across the country were forged and sold to job aspirants for lakhs of rupees.
“Thousands of students have been issued fake certificates while most of them have grabbed jobs in different departments by furnishing forged certificates and mark sheets,” he alleged.
Raising an accusing finger at BJD leaders, the Congress lawmaker alleged that some of them involved in the racket. An advisor of BJD’s IT cell was among those arrested in the case, he claimed
“Many students of Matric and Plus –II lacking basic knowledge of their subjects have got top grades in the forged certificates,” Saluja said.
In view of such grave offence done to meritorious students, the racketeers should be booked under NSA, the Congress legislator said, and sought a ruling from the Speaker in this regard.
