Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan. File.
| Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna
Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on Thursday refuted a social media post of Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan regarding the paper leak terming it “half-baked”.
Mr. Bhushan posted a 40-second video along with a message on his social media platform saying: “Bihar Public Service Commission chairman claims that exam paper could not have leaked because it was kept in a strong untearable envelope! The man needs to be sacked immediately!”
The 70th BPSC preliminary examination was held on December 13 at 912 centres across the State in which 3.28 lakh candidates appeared. On the day of the exam, a rumour had spread regarding a question paper leak at Bapu Exam Centre (BEC), one of the centres in the State capital, followed by protests by the candidates after the exam.
However, BPSC chairman Parmar Ravi Manubhai had denied the rumour of a paper leak asserting that the exam was conducted peacefully at all 911 centres out of 912.
The 40-second video posted by Mr. Bhushan was divided into two parts. In the first part, Mr. Manubhai asked the reporters to give it a try to tear the envelope, which had question papers, terming it untearable and in the second part, a journalist tears the envelope.
In a conversation with The Hindu, Examination Controller of the BPSC Rajesh Kumar Singh stuck to the claim. “The Commission would not like to get into the argument of what Mr. Bhushan said in his [social media] post but yes, we would surely like to explain the process under which the exam was conducted peacefully. The Chairman was explaining the same thing on December 13. What you see in the video is not the fact, he is misinformed,” Mr. Singh said.
He pointed out that 5.30 lakh question papers were printed, which means around 45,000 such envelopes were made having different sets of question papers inside it and the one torn by the journalist was already used. Mr. Singh said if the envelope would be tampered, it would not be accepted by the invigilator and the question is also sealed from three sides, which is only opened by the examinee.
After the exam, the district magistrate’s office released a video in which it was clearly visible that some miscreants tried to snatch the question paper from the examinees at BEC. Some persons even created ruckus as Patna District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh allegedly slapped one of the candidates when he was protesting at the centre. Police have lodged a separate FIR in this case against the protesting candidates. Even the Commission has identified 34 such examinees who created trouble and they would be debarred from taking future exams.
Mr. Singh further said, “The question papers reached the examination centre with more than 10 layers of security. The exams were held between 12 p.m and 2 p.m, entry of the students between 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., no entry of anyone after 11 a.m., question papers reached the centre after 11 a.m. Mobile jammers was on and no one was allowed to take mobile inside the centre. How can the student claim a paper leak during the exam?”
At the BEC, a total of 12,000 candidates appeared for the exam and only retesting of this centre will take place and together the results would be announced. Mr. Manubhai had categorically stated that he did not receive any complaint of paper leak from any centre.
The transportation of the question paper boxes are done in a container with CCTV cameras installed inside it, having a one-time lock system, GPS tracker and alphanumeric code lock. From the treasury, the question paper reaches a different examination centre. The question papers distributed are in different series.
Published – December 20, 2024 04:40 am IST
