Odisha govt steps in to bailout BSE in Matric exam mess

Cuttack: Yielding to the request made  by Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha government has directed all the district collectors and superintendents of police (SPs) to extend requisite help to ensure that the rescheduled matriculation examinations for regular students are held without any further hiccups from April 17.
       
“The government has passed necessary orders to the civil administration at district level to help the Board  officials in storing, distribution and transportation of question papers to different examination centers safely for the ensuing examinations which was suspended on March 21 last after missing of questions from a center”, BSE secretary N R Mohapatra  said here.
        
The government has also appointed 11 coordinators in as many districts along with the 19 existing Circle Inspectors (CIs) to act as Nodal Officers in each of the 30 districts to coordinate in setting of Nodal centers in all the districts which would take care of the questions on each day till the examinations are over on April 26, Mohapatra said.
        
Meanwhile, BSE has also formed a 10-member  monitoring committee which would review progress of the examination on a daily basis and make recommendations for improving the system if any. Mohapatra would head the high-level committee while other officials of the Board are its members.        

Mohapatra said that the Nodal officers in each district are working out to select the Nodal centers in each of the districts in consultation with Board and District administration.

“At least 12 to 15 examination centers would come under each Nodal center, which would ensure that the question papers reach the centers one day in advance under strict police escort”, the BSE secretary informed.
 
A training camp of coordinators and CIs, who  would act as Nodal officers would be held here on April 3, he added.
       
Meanwhile, BSE officials heaved a sigh of relief as the matriculation examinations for Ex-Regular and Sanskrit (Madhyama) students ended yesterday peacefully. These exams had commenced from March 19 along with Regular students. While examinations for Regular students were suspended on March  21, other examinations continued as per schedule.
        
Sources however, said that at least 3400 students from nearly 54000 Ex-Regular students were booked for malpractices after they were caught resorting to unfair means during the examinations. Maximum number of malpractice  cases was booked in Sambalpur district while Puri district recorded the least.

Revised schedule of Matric exams announced

Cuttack (Odisha): Giving a much-needed relief to matriculation examinees of Odisha, Board of Secondary Education (BSE) announced that the suspended examinations of regular stream students would resume from April 17 and continue till April 26.
 
After hectic deliberations for last two days, the examination committee fixed the new dates of the examinations with English on April 17, Third Language on 19, Mathematics on 21, Physical Science on 23, Life Science on 24, History on 25 and Geography on April 26, officials said.
 
The MIL paper of the students was over on March 19 before the examinations were suspended on March 21 after some question papers were stolen from a centre.
        
"The new timetable of the examinations has been endorsed by the government and we are working on modalities on how to keep the question papers safely at examination centres so that this type of unfortunate situations are not repeated again", Board president Satyakam Mishra said. 

Matric exams deferred after question paper theft

Cuttack: The Board of Secondary Education(BSE) in Odisha has deferred the ongoing Matriculation examination after alleged theft of question papers from a school in Puri district, official sources said.

The Examination Committee which met last evening took the decision after it was found that question papers of English, Third language, Mathematics, and two papers each of Science and Social Science were found missing from Bhagabati Vidyapeeth of Bajapur in Kakatpur of Puri district.

The examination centre superintndent and three others have been placed under suspension following the incident, the sources said.

Sources said the locker of the almirah kept in the school office was broken and seals of the question packets were broken. Questions papers from the seven subjects were missing from the packets while the door of the school office was dismantled.

"Although, we have not yet received any complaint of question leak, yet we cannot take risk of conducting the examinations as per schedule since some questions are missing from the packets," Board president Satyakam Mishra said.

Orissa HC directs state govt to proble rape allegations

Cuttack: Orissa High Court has issued notices to the state government to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation of tribal girls in government-run residential schools.

The division bench of Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice B N Mohapatra yesterday issued notices to the state government asking the government counsel to obtain instructions within 15 days and fixed the matter to be heard again after the state governments reply. The HC notice came while hearing the PIL filed by social activist and lawyer Prabir Das, who is also the petitioner in sensational Pipili rape case.

Das has alleged that a class IX student of a Bolangir-based government school was raped in the school by two teachers in July 2011. While a police case is pending against the two erring teachers and a woman peon of the school for helping the teachers, the girl was thrown out of the school.

"Moreover, the girls parents have migrated to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in search of livelihood, leaving the girl alone at home to go through the agony and trauma," the petition said urging the High Court to interfere and direct the government to pay a damage of Rs five lakh to the victim.

The petition has also sought the HCs direction to the state government to ensure protection, rehabilitation and resumption of studies of the girl. Besides, the petitioner has also brought to the notice of the HC about similar incidents taking place in other places.

While a class-IV girl of a Koraput-based sevashram was allegedly raped by the school headmaster in October 2011, four minor girls (all of class-VIII) in Nabarangpur residential school were sexually exploited by the headmaster in 2010. 

Stay on VSS Medical College eviction drive lifted

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has vacated a stay granted on eviction of encroachers in the VSS Medical College and Hospital campus and directed the state government to continue its eviction drive after dismissing the petition.

The division bench of Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice B N Mohapatra, while yesterday dismissing another petition with a similar prayer, asked the government to complete the eviction drive soon and submit a report to the court within 10 days.

Last year, the HC had asked the government to launch a massive eviction drive inside the campus of the hospital and remove all encroachments when the students of the medical college had alleged that anti-social elements were creating nuisances in the campus.

The court, however, had granted a stay after hearing a petition filed by Sasmita Panigrahi praying for a halt to the drive. Encouraged by the stay order obtained by Sasmita, another person Gouri Das, too, approached the High Court with a similar prayer.

But this time when the matter was listed before the court of the Chief Justice, the government counsel told the court that the eviction process had come to a halt because of the stay order granted by another bench of the HC.

The bench headed by the Chief Justice tagged both the cases and adjudicating over it jointly dismissed the petitions.