Vyapam, renamed as Professional Examination Board, is now known as Karamchari Chayan Aayog
Vyapam, which was renamed as Professional Examination Board and is now known as Karamchari Chayan Aayog, has made Rs 1,046 crore from holding exams for unemployed youths in the last 10 years.
Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam was once infamous for a massive recruitment scam.
The expenditure for conducting exams during the same period was Rs 502 crore, leaving a profit of Rs 545 crore.
These details were given in a written reply by Technical Education Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia to a question by former minister and Congress MLA Jitu Patwari in the state assembly.
Mr Patwari sought information on income and expenditure of Vyapam from 2011-12 to 2020-2021.
The reply said Vyapam has Rs 404 crore deposited in its five bank accounts.
"Every year lakhs of unemployed youth appear in the recruitment examinations conducted in the state. This also shows high unemployment in the state. In 2017, Vyapam took 15 examinations in which more than 36 lakh candidates appeared," Mr Patwari told NDTV.
"Vyapam collected the highest fees for conducting examination of patwari, police, jail guard and in recruitment of teachers. Vyapam will remain profitable even if they charge half the fees, so the state government could easily reduce fees charged from unemployed youths by half. Vyapam conducts all types of examinations through private agencies. In return for which crores of rupees are paid every year. As per the fee collection for the last 10 years, Vyapam is earning a net profit of Rs 45 crore every year. Whereas the average expenditure every year is Rs 41 crore," Mr Patwari said.
In the economic survey presented in the Budget session In 2020, the number of unemployed youths in the state was 24.72 lakh, which went up to 30.23 lakh in 2021.
The percentage of educated youths has also gone up from 93.37 per cent (of the total unemployed) to 95.07 per cent. So a total of 5.46 lakh unemployed have increased in the state in the last year, and 35 per cent unemployed youths in the state are graduates.
This is the situation when school education department has 30,600 vacant posts, 9,388 in the Home Department, 8,592 in the Health Department, and 9,530 posts in the Revenue Department.
More than one lakh posts are vacant in different departments of the state government.