RTI mocked in Jamua: CDPO refuses to divulge Anganwadi recruitment details, labels complaints “Hypothetical Questions”

JAMUA (GIRIDIH): In a shocking defiance of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) in Jamua, Giridih, Naresh Kumar Verma, has flatly denied sharing crucial public recruitment details with an applicant.

The department has gone as far as labeling official complaints and verification reports regarding a recent Anganwadi recruitment drive as “hypothetical and interrogative,” completely shielding the selection process from public scrutiny.

The matter came to light after Champa Kumari, a resident of Pobi Village, filed an RTI application seeking absolute transparency regarding the selection of Sevikas in the South and North pockets of Pobi Gram Panchayat. Her application requested fundamental data points, including total applications received, selection criteria, merit lists, cut-off marks, and the final ranks of selected candidates. She also sought the status of her own application and the explicit reasons for her non-selection.

However, in an official response (Letter No. 2851, dated May 22, 2026), the Jamua CDPO completely blocked the request for points 1 to 4 with a blanket, single-sentence rejection: “The requested information is not desirable under this Act.”

The evasion reached absurd heights when the applicant demanded certified copies of any objections, complaints, or appeals filed against the recruitment, along with the action taken by the administration. Dismissing a clear request for public records, the officer responded that “the requested information is a hypothetical question, and answering questions is not expected under this Act.”

Similarly, when asked how the population criteria for the specific Anganwadi areas were determined, the office discarded the query, claiming it was “interrogative” in nature.

The only concrete document provided by the department was a photocopy of a 2022 departmental letter regarding reservation criteria (Letter No. 2239, dated 29/09/2022). When the applicant further pressed for copies of the updated Jharkhand Anganwadi Sevika/Sahayika Selection Rules (including the 2023 resolution and any recent 2025 amendments), the CDPO simply redirected her to look back at the previous points, effectively stonewalling the request.

This blatant stonewalling raises serious doubts about the integrity of the Anganwadi recruitment process in Jamua. If the hiring process was strictly merit-based and legal, why is the department hiding the cut-off scores, application statuses, and merit lists? How can a request for documented public complaints against a government hiring drive be brushed off as “hypothetical”?

Such evasive tactics defeat the very purpose of the RTI Act and fuel local allegations of nepotism and corruption in the selection process. The applicant is now reportedly preparing to escalate the matter to the State Information Commission.