The Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, known popularly by its Hindi acronym Vyapam, which had become infamous over the Vyapam scam, is under the scanner yet again.

This time, the allegations are of irregularities in the recruitment exam conducted by Vyapam for the posts of State Agriculture Extension Officer (AEO). It is being alleged that the 10 toppers of the said exam achieved almost identical marks, did the same mistakes, belong to the same area, studied in the same college and nine of them are of the same caste.

The issue rocked the state Assembly too and the Opposition Congress today staged a walk out of the house during the ongoing budget session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly alleging irregularities and involvement of toplevel people in the AEO exam conducted by Vyapam.

Some students who had appeared in the said exam had lodged complaints with Vyapam alleging that the 10 toppers of the AEO recruitment exam had received the same marks. Some of the complainants also charged that few of the toppers had a poor academic background during their college days.

The role of Vyapam is also under suspicion again, as it had given the task of conducting the exam to a company that is already blacklisted.

The exam was conducted on 10 and 11 February by the NSEIT Company and results were announced on 17 February. According to the complainants, the Uttar Pradesh government had blacklisted this company in 2017 over irregularities in the recruitment exam of Police Sub-Inspectors in that state.

The complainant students had also met State Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel. The minister had assured them of looking into the issue.

The Vyapam authorities had initially claimed that it was a mere coincidence but after pressure grew, the Vyapam had constituted an inquiry into the matter.

Today, Senior Congress MLA Dr Govind Singh said during the zero hour that he has demanded a discussion through a calling attention motion on the issue. He alleged that his demand was deliberately not being accepted, as several top-level people were involved in the scam.

“Many top-level people are involved in the scam, which is why the government is deliberately avoiding a discussion in the Assembly,” Dr Singh told The Statesman.