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  India   All India  24 Jun 2018  Bihar: 40,000 answersheets found from two scrap dealers

Bihar: 40,000 answersheets found from two scrap dealers

THE ASIAN AGE. | NAYEAR AZAD
Published : Jun 24, 2018, 7:22 am IST
Updated : Jun 24, 2018, 7:22 am IST

The Bihar School Examination Board which was slated to declare the class ten results this week had postponed it for June 26 due to the incident.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (Photo: PTI)
 Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Despite chief minister Nitish Kumar’s repeated assurance to improve the education system in the state, deep-rooted corruption in board examination and carelessness of officials continues to expose education department.  

The latest to create flutter was the recovery of over 40,000 answer sheets from two scrap dealers in Gopalganj district. According to the police, both the scrap dealers had purchased the answer sheets from the caretaker of the school where the answer sheets were kept after evaluation.

According to education department officials over 40,000 evaluated answer sheets kept in 214 gurney bags had disappeared from a room of SS Girl’s secondary High School in Gopalganj district.

“The officials wanted to verify the answer sheets of students who had scored high marks in the class ten board examinations. But all the bags were found missing. The incident had delayed the class ten board results. The matter is still being investigated”, a Bihar board official said. Both the scrap dealers were later produced before the court. The SIT after interrogating both the scrap dealers produced them before the court from where they were sent to jail. Sources claim that the SIT is also trying to find out the motive behind school peon selling the answer sheets as scrap.

The SIT probing the case had earlier detained school’s Principal Pramod Kumar Srivastava for questioning. He was later arrested after police suspected his role in the case.  

The Bihar School Examination Board which was slated to declare the class ten results this week had postponed it for June 26 due to the incident. Around 1.76 candidates had appeared for the class 10th board examinations held in February.

According to officials, verification of papers started after some students with high ranking marks failed to answer even basic questions.  In 2016, the state education department was left embarrassed after an intermediate topper Ruby Rai during a TV interview had said that her subject political science was all about cooking and even pronounced the word as “prodigal science”.

The education department was globally criticized in 2015 after pictures of a government school in Vaishali district showed people scaling up window shades and walls to hand over answer chits to students appearing for board examination in the presence of police.

“We suspect a conspiracy to defame the BSEB which has been trying to conduct examinations in Bihar in a fair manner”, BSEB Chairman Anand Kishore had said after the answer sheets were found missing earlier this week.

Tags: nitish kumar, bihar school examination board, scrap dealers
Location: India, Bihar, Patna