Chennai,  The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) is continuing its probe into the irregular appoints at the state milk cooperative, Aavin, officials said.

The probe is on the irregular appointments of 236 people in the eight district milk producers union in the first six months of 2021.

An internal inquiry conducted in the milk cooperative in August 2021 had revealed irregular appointments and had reported this to the government.

Sources in the milk cooperative told IANS that the appointments were made for the posts of managers in the Accounts Department, as well as in agriculture, and dairying. Posts of deputy managers were also filled in an irregular manner, according to the milk cooperative's report to the state government.

Several lower-level posts, including that of drivers and factory assistants, were also filled without proper procedures.

There were wide-scale irregularities in the appointments as the eight district milk unions had conducted direct recruitment without adhering to the process, including the mandatory gaps.

A senior DVAC officer told IANS that if the interview was held on February 10, 2021, the call letter was despatched only on February 5 or 6. This means that a gap of only four or five days was given to the candidate instead of the mandatory 10 days.

Te candidates selected under the Madurai milk union for the post of deputy manager, dairying) had qualifications of Bsc Home science, MA Sociology and PG Diploma in Nutrition while the required qualification is a degree with Indian Dairy Diploma (IDD) and National Dairy Diploma (NDD) or PG in Diary Science or BTech in Food Technology/ Dairy Technology.

There were complaints that bribes amounting to lakhs of rupees were given for getting posts and district registrar level officers were involved in filling the posts.

The DVAC has, according to sources in the agency, sought all the relevant documents and is probing into the postings under the eight district milk cooperative offices.