The training of probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar was cancelled on Tuesday amid a row over her selection in the civil services exam. Khedkar is under the scanner for allegedly forging disability certificates to clear the Civil Services examination.
The letter stated, "It is informed that Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie has decided to keep your District Training Program on hold and immediately recall you for further necessary action. Therefore, you are hereby relieved from District Training Programme of State Government of Maharashtra. The letter from the Academy is attached herewith. You are instructed to join the Academy at the earliest but not later than 23rd July, 2024 under any circumstances."
In the latest set of allegations, it was alleged that Puja Khedkar had obtained a partial 'locomotor disability' certificate from a hospital at Pimpri in Pune district in August 2022. The authenticity of various certificates submitted by her to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), one of them indicating visual impairment, will be probed as instructed by the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, police said earlier in the day.
Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates, provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category. Additionally, she had applied for a disability certificate from the Aundh government hospital in Pune in August 2022, but after medical tests her application was rejected.
