August 12 (Odisha.in) In Orissa, while a school teacher was arrested and suspended, for caning a girl student, the School and Mass education Minister Bishnu Charan Das goes scot-free even after his alleged role in manipulating the mark-sheet of his son in the annual High School Certificate Examination , 2007.
The teacher got the punishment as per the law instantly. But the Chief Minister preferred an administrative inquiry by asking the state Chief Secretary instead of the Vigilance Department , to probe into the controversial issue involving the School and Mass education Minister ,which has wide political ramifications.
However, the main opposition Congress has demanded the resignation of the Das for his alleged involvement in the manipulation in mark sheets.
The School and Mass education Minister, Das , Saturday was quick enough to deny his role in the increase of marks in at least five papers-Oriya, Science English, Mathematics and Social science and attributed it to a possible computer error.
Despite the fact that my son- Bijoy Shankar was a good student, I doubted his securing abnormally higher marks ,on May 29 last ,the day, the results of the HSC Examination was declared and asked him to apply for rechecking”, clarified Das.
“Bijoy applied twice for rechecking of his valuation papers and to my utter surprise, my expectation came true as the marks were much less than that of in the final results sheets “,the Minister said but failed to give a satisfactory answer to the quarry-when over 8000 candidates were in the line for a recheck of their valuation papers,howcome, his son’s case was disposed off so quickly.
However, the minister only grumbled ,” unnecessarily different colours are being given to the episode and there might have been a conspiracy angle to defame him” daring to face any inquiry.
The magic marks episode came to light in the first week of August as the ,Commissioner-cum Director, Secondary Education who held the additional charge of the President of Board of Secondary Education, Orissa that conducts the HSC Examination, sought a report from the Secretary after getting an anonymous call relating to manipulation of marks in the result sheets of the relatives of the VVIPs and the particular roll number which was found out to be the case of Ministers’ son .
“In a confidential letter I asked the Board Secretary on 3rd August to inquire into the case and submit a report within 48 hours . Instead of getting any reply , I was divested of the additional charge of the President “, said the Commissioner-cum- Director, Debendra Chandra Mishra.
In the mark sheet, the Minister’s son was awarded 89 in Oriya in place of 39, 80 in English against 50, 60 in Mathematics Paper-II in place of 40, 50 in Science instead of 40 and in Social science Paper II, it was 54 against 45.
On Thursday last , the History Teacher of the Ganeswarpur nodal Upper Primary School in Puri district about 6o Km form the state capital here , was arrested and later suspended for inflicting corporal punishment to a seventh standard girl student Barsha Mishra .
The teacher was furious following Barsha’s allegation against him before the Head Master that he was using cell phone in the class room and taking help of text books to answer their questions.
Odisha.in