Patna: Taken to task by the Patna High Court over large-scale copying in ongoing matriculation examination and widespread criticism, the Bihar government on Friday swung into action and cancelled examination at four centres and took seven policemen into custody for aiding in cheating.
A division bench of Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy and Justice Vikash Jain took the state government to task over report of mass scale copying in the matriculation examination.
The court converted report published in an english daily into PIL and directed state police chief to stop copying immediately.
The court issued summons to Education Department to appear before it on next Friday to respond on the subject.
The court instruction came after senior lawyer and office bearer of Aam Admi Party (AAP) in the state Basant Kumar Chaudhary drew its attention by showing a newspaper report.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wasted no time and called a high level review meeting with Education minister P K Shahi, DGP PK Thakur, Principal Secretary Home Amir Subhani and his counterpart in Education department RK Mahajan in his Secretariat chamber and instructed them to ensure cheating-free matriculation examination, an official statement said.
The CM ordered action against policemen and magistrates deployed on examination duty if found involved in abetting cheating.
Principal Secretary (Education) RK Mahajan accompanied by Chairman of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh told reporters in the evening that examination at four centres in the state have been cancelled on the basis of report of mass-scale copying there.
He said lawful action would be initiated against teachers, policemen and magistrates deployed in those centres.
The four centres where exam has been cancelled included Vidya Niketan Mahnar and St Francis School Mahnar in Vaishali district where visuals showed people scaling three to four storey exam centres to pass on chits to their wards.
Mahajan said report has been sought within 24 hour from other centres across the state where media have reported cheating for action.
A report from Saharsa district said that eight home guard jawans were caught red handed aiding examinees in cheating at four centres in the district.
Sub Divisional Officer (SDO), Sadar, Saharsa Rajesh Kumar Singh said that seven home guards have been taken into custody while one managed to ran away by freeing his hand. Scores of chits and money were recovered from these home guards on duty at four centres in Saharsa district, he said.
Besides, two centres at Mahnar in Vaishali district,
examination has been cancelled at at High School Simri Bakhtiyarpur in Saharsa and High School in Nawada, Principal Secretary Education R K Mahajan said.
A total of 14.26 lakh students were appearing for the exams at 1,217 centres in the state that started on March 17. The examination would end on March 24.
Mahajan said a total of 766 students have been expelled in three days till yesterday after being caught cheating at different parts of the state.
Three impersonators and 36 parents were arrested yesterday in anti-cheating operation across the state, special cell in Bihar School Examination Board said.
Kumar today appealed to parents of examinees to stop cheating during public examinations,
which, he said, was drawing bad name to the state.
"Students cannot go forward in life on the basis of such exam certificate but on the basis of their talents," Kumar said after holding review meeting during the day in which he ordered to stop cheating in the ongoing matriculation examination in the state and action against policemen and magistrates deployed on examination duty if found involved in abetting cheating.
He said the pictures of cheating in matriculation examination were not the story of the entire state.
"Students from Bihar are talented and have shown their mantle across the world ... Some photographs showing cheating cannot dominate on merit of the students," Kumar said in his Facebook post.
Visuals showing people scaling three to four storey exam centres to pass on chits to their wards and in some cases even policemen extending a helping hand to them in return of money have gone viral in social media besides appearing in national and local dailies.
Opposition BJP attacked the state government for failing to stop cheating in the matriculation examination.
"The fact is that the state government has gone into deep slumber as a result of which the entire system seems to be crumbling," Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly Nand Kishore Yadav told reporters.
