Minister marks probe as PSEB clueless

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

The level of secrecy maintained by the Punjab School Examination Board (PSEB) while conducting school examinations can be gauged from the fact that the authorities are still unaware as to who had tampered with Class X Hindi answer sheet of the girl, who originally secured just 27 out of 70 marks in Hindi paper despite scoring 96 per cent in other subjects.

As the Education Minister today asked the board chairperson to inquire the matter and submit the report in seven days, the board has decided to lodge an FIR to identify the accused. The Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday ordered the board to pay Rs50,000 compensation to the affected student.

The board could not locate the erring official even after Manjot Kaur, who had appeared in Class X board exam in March 2014, retrieved the copy of her answer sheet using the RTI Act and made board authorities aware of the anomaly immediately after the declaration of result.

The board revised her score at the fag end of last year after she approached the high court alleging tampering with her answer sheet.

“All answer sheets are bar-coded. But there are chances that somebody might have tampered with the answer sheet at examination centre. We are still not aware who has done it. We have thus decided to lodge an FIR,” said board chairperson Dr Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal.

Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema said: “The incident is of grave concern. Such irresponsible behaviour on part of any officer could not be tolerated.”