Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday ordered a high-level probe into the paper leak in the Uttar Pradesh Combined Pre-Medical Test-2014 (UPCPMT-2014), which was detected in Ghaziabad minutes before the exams were set to begin across the State.
The exam is slated to be held on July 20 but a final decision would be taken by the State Government. The dates for the results, counselling sessions and joining colleges will be declared later.
UPCPMT-2014, conducted by the King George’s Medical University in Ghaziabad, 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, along with the police and King George’s Medical University (KGMU) officials, found that someone had tried to open the sealed boxes containing the question papers. The District Magistrate of Ghaziabad said the boxes had been tampered with. Officials, however, did not specifically say whether papers were missing from the tampered boxes.
“Test papers were sealed in 40 boxes, which were kept in two banks in Ghaziabad. When officials went to these two bank branches this
morning, they found that the seals on the two boxes had been tampered with. The exam was cancelled thereafter,” Ghaziabad city magistrate SVS Ranga Rao told The Pioneer.
At 8.00 am when the nodal officer Dr RK Dixit reached the Navyug Market branch of State Bank of India (SBI) and Allahabad Bank to collect the question papers, he found the seals on the boxes broken. After inspecting carefully
Dr Dixit refused to accept the boxes containing question papers and reported the case to Ranga Rao.
To avoid further confusion, the KGMU 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 exam. The exam has been rescheduled for July 20.” Prof AK Singh, the examination controller at KGMU also confirmed the news.
Approximately 1,09,219 candidates were to appear in the test at 213 centres across 15 districts (of which 45 were in lucknow) for admission to various medical colleges in UP. “The nodal centre for the examination was HRIT
campus on Meerut Road. The other centres included MB Girls Inter College (Navyug Market), Shambhu Dayal College (GT Road) and Rajkiya Balika Vidyalaya (Vijay Nagar) and Ingraham Institute (Hapur Road). MB Girls Inter College and HRIT campus contained double centres while HRIT campus was the nodal centre for the entire examination to be held in Ghaziabad,” city magistrate Ashutosh Kumar said.
Taking cognisance of the paper leak, the Chief Minister has directed Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan to constitute a high-level committee and take stern action against those involved in “playing with the future of students”.
The Opposition BJP was quick to pounce on the issue, demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident, claiming that the question papers were kept in bank strong rooms without CCTV despite the fact that “such question papers are been kept in Government treasury strong room”.
Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief laxmikant Bajpai alleged that a special task force investigation “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 for no fault of theirs.
The paper leak has come as another setback to the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government which is on the back foot over deteriorating law and order situation and a spate of rapes.