PU yet to fix responsibility in exam seal-tampering charge

Bhartesh Singh Thakur 

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, October 15 

Two college teachers have alleged tampering of seal and fraud in BA Semester V geography exam held in December, 2016. The matter was reported on February 20, 2017 but till date, even after eight months, Panjab University (PU) is yet to fix the responsibility on anyone.

Geography teachers from Post Graduate Government College (PGGC), Sector 42, associate professor Prem Sagar and assistant professor Shalini Singh from Post Graduate Government College (PGGC), Sector 11, had appeared before an inquiry committee on October 11 and reiterated their allegations of 

tampering and breaking of secrecy. 

As of now, a committee having four PU Senators has been looking into the case. Earlier, another committee had looked into the case but it did not inquire into allegations of tampering but only looked into the scrutiny and review of marks. 

As per the complaint dated February 20, both Prem Sagar and Shalini Singh had alleged that they had received information that after they had checked papers at Panjab University (PU), someone broke open the seal of the answer sheets and noted down details of over 200 students with their roll numbers and marks on a sheet of paper. This paper is in the possession of a new inquiry committee under Josan. 

“As soon as we received the information, we filed the complaint. But it has been eight months now, no conclusion has been intimated to us,” said associate professor Prem Sagar. He added, “There were two examiners—Shalini Singh and me. There is one head examiner too.”

According to Prem Sagar, there were other details written on page too like number of failed and passed students. “We have called for forensic exam to check the handwriting on page and a thorough investigation to know who is responsible for it,” he said. 

“I have been working since 1985 and I have never come across such tampering. We are discouraged that the PU has not been doing anything despite evidence and eight months have passed,” said Prem Sagar. 

Teachers’ complaint 

Both teachers called to find out how the secrecy of evaluated answer sheets was broken. They said that roll numbers allotted by the PU were jotted down by opening the sealed ribbon on left side of answer sheets. They apprehended that at some places, marks of certain codes (fictitious roll numbers) were altered without their knowledge. 

They also alleged that changes were made either with concurrence of in-charge of evaluation centre or the person who was feeding data in computer. 

They called for a thorough probe to know how long it had been happening and fix responsibility so that such incidents did not recur.