Amaravati: In what could kick up a fresh controversy, agriculture department is examining a proposal to regularise all the employees who sneaked into the department with invalid and fake certificates.Sources said that the department has agreed to take up the issue as one-time solution to the long pending trouble. Sources said that about 200 officials who have been working in the department for over 15 years are expected to get benefited if the move gets the nod of the cabinet.In fact, the agriculture department was split inato two factions and fighting with each other for the past two years. Sources said that the trouble began after the state government decided to grant promotions to the officers who secured their degrees from the agriculture universities and colleges which were not affiliated to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) about two years ago. The officials, who joined the service with degrees secured from the universities that are affiliated to ICAR, have been opposing the promotion of non-ICAR degree holders. They contend that majority of the degrees issued by the non-ICAR colleges and universities were fake and found fault with the government for recognizing the fake degrees.Following strong protests particularly from the students of Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University (ANGRAU), the state government issued a GO stating that graduates with ICAR universities would only be considered for promotions and regularisation. With the students demanding for weeding out of the fake degree holders from the department, the government ordered CID probe into the issue. Subsequently, vigilance and enforcement department too had taken up an enquiry.Under pressure from the non-ICAR group, the government appointed a three-men committee to look into the genuinity of the certificates. The government in last July asked the committee headed by the controller of examinations of ANGRAU to verify all the certificates of the agriculture officers in the department and submit a report within 15 days.Agriculture principal secretary B Rajasekhar in the GO (Ms.65) had clearly stated that measures to terminate the employees whose certificates were found fake, would also be initiated immediately after receipt of the three-men committee report. Surprisingly, not only the committee’s report did not see the light, the government did not initiate any action on the issue till the date.

Stay updated with all the Latest Vijayawada headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.