The vice-chancellor of Gulbarga University S.R. Niranjana, in a candid admission, has said that large scale irregularities were going on in the conduct of both the undergraduate and postgraduate examinations in majority of the examination centres.
Intervening in the discussion on the alleged examination malpractices raised by the nominated member Venkatesh Patil in the Academic Council meeting of the University in Kalaburagi on Wednesday, Prof. Niranjana admitted that large scale irregularities were going on in the conduct of the examinations. In many examination centres, books were being allowed inside the examination hall, to allow the students to copy. In some centres, ineligible persons, including peons of the institutions were performing duties of the invigilators.
Prof. Niranjan said, “I was not permitted to enter the examination hall at some of centres during my visits. I myself had debarred many students indulging in examination malpractices.”
It has also come to the notice of the University that in colleges that housed examination centres, many officials were allegedly accepting money from students to allow the malpractices during the examinations.
When Mr. Patil said that he had brought the wrongdoings in Gulbarga University to the notice of the State government and the Human Resource Ministry at the Centre, Prof. Niranjana flared up and remarked, “I am also ready to provide all the details of the examination malpractices I have noticed to the State government if the details are sought.”
Lesser centres
The V-C said, “As part of the measures initiated to check malpractices, the number of examination centres had been reduced from 180 to 135 for undergraduate examinations and from 35 to 14 for postgraduate examinations. Even this action has been met with resistance and there was a lot of political pressure not to reduce the number of centres.”
Appealing to the members of the Academic Council to suggest measures to end malpractices, Prof. Niranjana said that he had faced some of the “worst consequences” during his one-year term and did not want to disclose details of the same in the meeting to the media.
Delay in revaluation
There was a heated argument between Mr. Venkatesh Patil and Registrar (Evaluation) C.S. Patil over the delay in completing the revaluation of answer sheets of both postgraduate and undergraduate examinations, which was said to be pending for the past five years. The Registrar, who said that the revaluation of the answer sheets have been completed now, however, could not provide the details of the number of answer sheets cleared and how many valuators were used to clear the backlog.
