Malkangiri: A senior lady clerk of Malkangiri District Welfare Department has been dismissed from the service on charges of forging caste certificate to get into government service.
The senior clerk, Laxmipriya Behera, has been in service for the past 24 years and also got a promotion in between.
The Southern Revenue Commissioner had earlier ordered a probe into the case after receiving a complaint against Laxmipriya of forging her caste certificate in order to get the government job.
Accordingly, the ST & SC Development department initiated an inquiry and found the allegation to be correct. The investigation revealed that Behera got the government service before 24 years by submitting a fake ST certificate when she actually doesn’t belong to the said community.
Following her marriage to a tribal, she had applied for ST certificate and the then Junagarh Tehsildar provided her the caste certificate without any enquiry, it was learnt.
On the basis of the investigation report, Malkangiri Collector Y Vijay dismissed the senior lady clerk from the service. Laxmipriya has been also directed to return all remuneration availed during the service period. However, Laxmipriya is yet to receive the termination letter as she is currently on leave.
