Agartala, April 3: The Tripura Public Service Commission (TPSC), which has long been haunted by allegations of nepotism and corruption, has been hit by a fresh scam concerning the appointment of a librarian.

Soma Sarkar has been allegedly appointed the TPSC librarian through alleged machinations in the commission. She had graduated in 2001 and obtained a diploma in Library Science from Meerut in 2002. She declared she had garnered experience of five years as a librarian in a private library run by one Romaprasad Dutta.

The certificate produced by Sarkar proves that she had worked as a librarian for five years at the time when she had been pursuing studies at the matriculation and higher secondary level in school.

But another applicant from Dharmangar subdivision of North Tripura, who is an honours graduate and has a Master?s degree and a degree in Library Science, was denied the job.

Sources in the TPSC claimed that a group within the commission with a vested interest had manipulated the recruitment process. ?Normally, TPSC takes months and even years to conduct examinations and announce results. But in this case, results were declared within a week and the offer of appointment issued within 24 hours,? a source said, adding that the favoured candidate has already joined service.

Under retired archaeologist Bijay Debbarma as chairman, the commission has performed fairly well. But it appears to have deteriorated with the departure of Debbarma and appointment of J.M. Das as TPSC chairman.

Over 200 CPM activists had laid siege to the Agartala party office in 2001 demanding government intervention towards reversing the results of a TPSC examination for recruitment of clerks in the state secretariat office. Chief minister Manik Sarkar had refused to accept the plea to intervene in the functioning of the commission.

Another case that was widely reported in local newspapers concerned Abhijeet Bhattacharya, who successfully provides pre-examination coaching to TCS and TPS aspirants at his coaching centre, School of Science. Ironically, he himself had failed to clear the TCS examination in 1998 and had levelled charges that question papers were leaked.