THE HOPES AND DREAMS of 190,000 medical college aspirants in Uttar Pradesh are in suspended animation with the abrupt cancellation of the UP Combined Pre-Medical Test (UPCPMT) on the day of the statewide exam, because of a security breach which has so rattled the state government that it has constituted a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to inquire into the alleged leak of question papers.
On June 22, hours before the exam was to begin in 213 centres across the state, a security box containing question papers was found damaged in Ghaziabad. King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow — the nodal university conducting the exam directed a switch to an alternative question paper and alerted all centres about the switch. But an hour later, another security box containing the alternative question papers was also found damaged in the strong room of a bank in Ghaziabad where it had been stored for security reasons. At 9.30 am, just as the exam was about to start, candidates were informed of its cancellation leading to statewide protests.
Leaked examination papers are not a novelty in India’s most populous (200 million) state, infamous for its barely functional law and order machinery. In 2004, six persons including a KGMU teacher were arrested by the CBI for leaking question papers of the all-India post graduate medical entrance examination. A year later, three KGMU students kidnapped an aspiring medical student who failed to pay the agreed amount for a leaked question paper; in 2006 three KGMU students were arrested for impersonating candidates writing the Punjab Pre-medical Test for which question papers had been printed in Lucknow; and in 2009, a suspiciously large number of progeny of politicians and bureaucrats cleared the postgraduate medical entrance test prompting an investigation.
In the recent June 22 leaked question papers case, police and investigating agencies suspect an inside job. Two sets of question papers were printed in another state, and the security boxes sealed and delivered directly to banks for safe keeping. These papers were then to be transported to 213 exam centres and the seal of the security boxes broken in the presence of four observers and the exam centre superintendent. While initial reports claim that no leaked question papers have been found with unauthorised personnel, the fact that not one but two exam paper security boxes were tampered points to definite insider involvement.
Ghaziabad’s district magistrate S.V.S. Ranga Rao added a fresh angle to the mystery by questioning whether bank strong rooms were appropriate repositories for question papers in the first place. “As per rules… the question papers should have been kept in the district treasury and we should have been informed so that security could have been provided,” he said in a statement released to the media. On the other hand, A.K. Singh, UPCPMT chief coordinator, says the rules of the exam don’t prescribe mandatory deposit of question papers with the district administration, and that bank depositories are a safer option.
While the exam now is rescheduled for July 20, students registered to write the exam complain that they have been forced to study for another month. Since this was the last pre medical exam of the year, a delay in the test means a delay in the announcement of results which may compel a delayed start of the new academic year. Inevitably, the state’s politicians have jumped into the fray.
The state unit of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that a solatium of Rs.2,000 be paid to every aspirant.
In the broader context, repeated allegations of exam scams and malpractices are certain to bring all education institutions in Uttar Pradesh — especially its 27 medical colleges — into disrepute. The lack of restraint exhibited by the population routinely indulging in malpractices, and the inability of the law, order and justice systems to investigate and speedily punish scamsters, is sure to make all academic certificates issued in India’s most populous state suspect. Therein lie the seeds of a greater tragedy.
Puja Awasthi (Lucknow)