Akhilesh Yadav Strongly Probes in UPCMT 2014 Paper Leak: Boxes with Exam Papers Tampered in Government Treasury!
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday ordered a high-level probe into the paper leak in the Uttar Pradesh Combined Premedical Test- 2014, the UPCPMT- 2014, which was detected in Ghaziabad minutes before the exams were set to begin across the state.
The exam will now be held one month later around July 20th 2014. The dates for the results, joining colleges and counselling sessions will be declared at a later stage.
UPCPMT- 2014 is conducted by the King George's Medical University in Ghaziabad. It is the gateway to admission in state-run medical and dental institutes where there are more than 1,000 MBBS and few hundred dental seats.
The test was cancelled after officials of the district administration in Ghaziabad, together with the police and KGMU (King George's Medical University) officials, got to know that someone had tried to open the boxes containing the question papers, which were sealed. The district magistrate of Ghaziabad said the boxes had been tampered with.
Officials, nonetheless, did not specifically say whether papers were missing from the tampered boxes.
To avoid further muddle, the KGMU website ran a flash on their website saying- "The district magistrate Ghaziabad has prima facie declared that there is tampering in the boxes of CPMT-2014 examination. The exam has been rescheduled for July 20, 2014.
The examination controller, Prof AK Singh, at KGMU also confirmed the news.
The decision to reschedule the test left thousands of candidates angry and upset.
"My daughter was away in Bhopal for some work and she came back just for the examination. The entire effort went in vain" said RJ Jain. Her daughter was at her exam centre in Lucknow, and around 25,000 students were to take the test at 43 centres.
Approximately 1,09,219 candidates were to appear in the test at 213 centres across 15 districts for admission to various medical colleges in UP.
Taking cognisance of the paper leak, Akhilesh Yadav has directed chief secretary AlokRanjan to constitute a high-level committee, mentioned the government spokesman. The CM has also assured that strict action would be taken against those involved.
The opposition BJP was quick to pounce on the issue, challenging a CBI inquiry into the incident, demanding an explanation that the question papers were kept in bank strong rooms without CCTV despite the fact that- "Such question papers have been kept in government treasury’s strong room".
Party's Uttar Pradesh unit chief LaxmikantBajpai alleged that a special task force investigation- "which seems to be the existing case, would merely help in saving the accused who might be enjoying political backing".
The BJP also demanded that the state government should reimburse the fare as well as the cost of food and lodging to the candidates who suffered this situation for no fault of theirs.
The paper leak has come as another setback to the SP (Samajwadi Party) government which is on the back foot over deteriorating law and order situation besides having a spate of rape cases.