Patiala, Sept. 19 -- Over the past two years, 31 serving government officials, including an IAS (allied), IRS, agriculture development officer and excise inspector, have been reportedly caught using falsified Schedule Caste (SC) certificates in Punjab. As per the documents accessed by HT, the department of social justice & minorities, Punjab, after holding an inquiry by a state-level scrutiny committee, declared that 31 officers had used fake SC certificates to get jobs. The scrutiny committee in its report last week stated that an excise inspector belonged to the Nishad caste, which was not in the list of Scheduled Castes issued by the Government of India. The said candidate, however, got his certificate of belonging to the Balmiki caste, which was apparently not legally valid, and the department of social justice & minorities on September 10 had to write to the secretary, department of excise & taxation, Punjab, to take action. In another case, an IAS allied, who was posted in the ministry of finance, was also found using a fake SC certificate. The Punjab government on September 3 had informed about his fake SC certificate to the Controller General of Accounts in the department of expenditure under the ministry of finance to take action. Meanwhile, the department of social justice empowerment & minorities has asked the Patiala DC to take action against nambardar and tehsildar, who facilitated these people in getting the fake SC certificates. "After getting testimony from sarpanch in villages or the municipal councillor in urban areas, the form for the SC certificate is testified by the patwari. Usually, patwari testifies the application merely relying on the testimony of the sarpanch or the municipal councillor. Thereafter, the tehsildar, based on the testimony of patwari, issues the SC certificate," said a senior official of the department of social justice & minorities, Punjab. "Since sarpanch or municipal councillors are elected representatives, therefore, they usually testify forms sheerly to oblige their voters. Most of these certificates had been either issued before or around 2000. Now, the process is online and more robust," he said. Social activist Balbir Singh, who is the complainant of the fake SC certificate cases, said, "The Punjab government should take action against those officials who issued these fake SC certificates. Still, there are many officers in various government departments who got jobs on the fake SC certificate." VK Meena, principal secretary, department of social justice & minorities, Punjab, said, "The department has been taking action as and when we get complaints of fake SC certificates following due process."...