Congress demands judicial probe into
inter exams goof up
Ø Sravan calls Minister
Jagadish Reddy 'Munnabhai MBBS', want him sacked
Ø Congress demands Help
Centres in all districts to help victims
Ø AICC demands ex-gratia
for families of inter students who committed suicide
Hyderabad/New Delhi, April 22: The Congress party on Monday demanded judicial
probe through a sitting judge of High Court into the irregularities committed
by the officials of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) and
Globarena Technologies in the intermediate results.
Addressing
a press conference at All India Congress Committee (AICC) Headquarters in New
Delhi, AICC Spokesperson Dr. Sravan Dasoju said that the blunders committed by
the TSBIE in exam results have caused serious agony to thousands and students
and their parents. Therefore, he said that the State Government should
immediately suspend the TSBIE officials including its Secretary Dr. Ashok and others
for their callous and allegedly corrupt practices. Calling Education Minister
Jagadish Reddy 'Munnabhai MBBS', he asked Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao
to sack him from the cabinet.
Sravan
blamed the incompetency and also the corrupt and callous administration of
TSBIE authorities which led to most unwanted manipulations in the intermediate
results which subjected thousands of meritorious students to gross injustice
and immense mental agony as their career got jeopardised. "Not only the students,
but their parents and entire family members are in deep distress. Nearly 25
students are reported to have committed suicides due to the faulty results
published by the TSBIE. Now who should be held responsible for those
deaths?" he asked while demanding that needy families be paid an ex-gratia
of Rs. 25 lakh each.
The
Congress leader strongly condemned the attitude of TSBIE authorities who
refused to address the grievances of thousands of parents and students and
instead advised them to apply for recounting or revaluation by paying per
subject Rs 100 and Rs 600 respectively. He described it as an attempt to cover
up their mismanagement and corrupt manipulation and demanded that the State
Government instruct TSBIE to take up recounting and re-evaluation at free of
cost.
Sravan
said it was only after thousands of students and parents created uproar against
the injustice that the concerned minister woke up from slumber. Instead of
resigning from his post owing moral responsibility, he announced constitution
of a committee to hush up the issue. He demanded that the Chief Minister
dismiss Jagadish Reddy from his cabinet immediately. However, he said that the
present government was more interested in promoting defection politics than
delivering good governance.
"Norms
flouted in awarding contract to Globarina Technologies"
The
AICC Spokesperson pointed out that the irregularities were not incidental, but
a result of gross violation of multiple norms and other manipulations. He said
up to the academic year 2017-18, the TSBIE used to divide the examination work
in two parts. While the Data Procession (Admissions, NR Generation, Centre
allotment, etc.,) used to be handled by Centre for Good Governance (CGG), the
Result Procession was carried out by experienced and expert private agencies.
However,
the TSBIE took a decision that both parts should be combined and be done by a
single agency and hence floated a consolidated tender Vide Reference
No.23/EDP/2017-18, dated 25.09.2017 to take up Design, Development maintenance
of Web based Application that is suitable for TSBIE business process
(admissions, pre-examination, post examination and results processing)
including OMR Scanning from the Academic year 2018-2019. As per the technical
eligibility and financial suitability, the Globarina Technologies Private
Limited, Hyderabad has been given order for the above said work. "As per
the TOR of Tender document floated by the TSBIE (Item.No.3, -Pre-qualification
criteria) there are 11 mandatory eligibility criterions.
and
out of which, the 6th and 7th Criteria’s are as follows: 6th Criteria: Should
have executed technology based examination solution for a single Board/
Government University with a single purchase order with 3 lakhs enrolled
students per year during any of the last 5 academic years and 7th Criteria:
Should have executed technology based examination solutions for a minimum of 5
Government Universities/ Government Boards, one must be from any State
Intermediate Board from India.
"As
per the 6th condition, the company/agency/firm for minimum 3 lakhs students per
year during any of the last 5 academic years. But as per the performance
certificate, issued by the JNTU, Kakinada dated 08.09.2014 to the Globarena
Technologies Private Limited, and clearly mentioned that nearly 270 Colleges
are affiliated to the University and only 2.5 lakhs students are on their
roll. Even though the said firm i.e., the Globarina Technologies was
never involved in pre and post examination work, The firm has only taken
up the online evaluation of Answer Scripts of JNTU only for the academic year
2013-2014. Further, it is very important to note that, the same work has
been undertaken with its consortium partners M/s. DRS, U.K. and M/S. Magnetic
Infotech Private Limited, Hyderabad," he pointed out.
Further,
as per the Criteria No.7, the firm should have executed technology based
examination solutions for a minimum of 5 Government Universities/ Government
Boards and one must be from any State Intermediate Board from India. But, as
per the experience certificates produced by the Globarina Technologies, the
firm has never worked for any Intermediate Board all over the country,
but the firm has worked for only miniscule task of online revaluation of
answer scripts consisting only 20,000 students for the TSBIE. On
producing of the same certificate of TSBIE, the firm is alleged to have been
selected. Whereas as per the present contract, the tasks assigned by the TSBIE
are of much more wide range and significantly complex in nature, he said.
Sravan
said despite Globarina Technologies not fulfilling the Criteria No.6 & No.
7 of the tender, the TSBIE authorities have awarded it the contract.
"While the contract was given to the Globarena Technologies to implement
end-to-end program for the academic year 2018-2019, the Globarena Technologies
is mandated to undertake pilot project of implementing the end-to-end program
even for the academic year 2017-2018 that were published in March 2018 and May
2018," he said.
As
per the TOR of the tender, If the results processed by the Globarena
Technologies during the pilot phase match with the final results that were
prepared by the then responsible company; only then the Globarena Technologies
should have been given the order to start his work for the academic year
2018-2019. Unfortunately, the TSBIE authorities seems to have allowed
skipping the pilot phase implementation by the Globarena Technologies, he said.
Further,
as per the TOR of Tender, the Globarena Technologies is supposed to have
submitted a complete software application design and implementation
architecture with a clearly defined time bound programme. However, It is said
that the Globarena Technologies has not submitted any Design, Development
maintenance of Web based Application that is suitable for TSBIE business
process (admissions, pre-examination, post examination and results processing)
including OMR scanning and hence, you may find that there is no security audit
conducted by CERT Agencies and not published in NIC (National Information
Centre) Servers. Without any application design submission, the Globarena
Technologies was permitted by TSBIE to start work for the academic year
2018-2019 to capture students DATA from the affiliated Colleges from 1st of
June 2018. However, the Globarena Technologies was not able to capture
the DATA up to 15th July 2018.
Subsequently,
the TSBIE has taken a decision to assign the work to Centre for Good Governance
and accordingly the CGG has completed the task. On 17th September, the
TSBIE has announced the Fee dates for 1st year and 2nd year regular and Private
students and announced that last date for payment of fee from the respective
colleges was 24.10.2018, while the Globarena Technologies totally failed to
launch its Gateway till 16.10.2018. "Due to the delayed and faulty Gateway
implemented by the Globarena Technologies, it appears that the principals of
colleges seem to have encountered many problems and delayed in making the data
entry," Sravan said.
After
recognising that there is big goof up by the Globarena Technologies, the TSBIE
has extended the Fee date from 24.10.2018 to 31.10.2018 and further extended to
06.11.2018 and issued instructions to the officers concerned for reconciliation
of Fee particulars with respective Colleges and permitted to pay the
examination fee up to 06.11.2018. On the whole, the TSBIE, playing with the
lives of students, callously conducted intermediate exams with faulty data and
faulty application and as result so many mistakes have cropped up, he alleged.
"We
have serious suspicion on the way the Globarena Technologies is allowed to
flout all the tender norms by Dr A Ashok. All these need to be thoroughly
enquired and culprits should be seriously punished," he said.
Further,
Sravan alleged that many answer scripts were misplaced and so far, no action
has been taken in this regard. He also alleged that many question papers were
leaked. Sometimes even all three Sets (A, B & C) were leaked and widely
circulated in social media. No one complained, as those papers were initially
perceived to be fake. But later, it was reported that the question papers were
in fact leaked, he said.
"Intermediate
exams were held from February 28 to March 18, 2019. But results were declared
only after 30 days i.e., on April 18 even though the answer sheets were
evaluated in just 10 days as against the general practice of completing the
same in 20 days. Only TSBIE knows why examiners were burdened with 60 papers
per day as against the standard of giving 30 papers per day. Earlier,
results used to be declared in maximum 2-3 weeks of time," he said adding
that no efforts were made to clarify on dates for declaration of results until
situation turned worse and this delay created chaos among students and parents.
The
Congress leader also pointed out the TSBIE committed huge mistakes in the
correction of papers. Attendees were shown as absentees and merit students who
got 90% percent above were shown as failed in one or two subjects. "For
many students, the marksheets said they didn’t appear for exam, but passed.
Similarly, many students received marksheets with wrong combination of
subjects. In one of the cases, an MPC student has economics and commerce
printed on the marksheet. Likewise, there are thousands of cases across
Telangana," he said.
Sravan
said that the grading system was introduced for the Intermediate Public
Examinations (IPE) from 2017-18. The decision was prompted by the practice of
corporate and private junior colleges putting pressure on students to perform,
thereby driving several students to suicide. However, the present results given
by TSBIE show both marks secured by students in each subject disregarding their
own rule of grading system. This is allowing Private colleges to use these numbers
to announce Top Rankers and thus increasing the pressure on students, he said.
The
AICC Spokesperson said that the intermediate marks would have 25% weightage in
determining EAMCET ranks and as such intermediate is the most crucial turning
point of one’s career. Therefore, he sought an assurance directly from the
Chief Minister that the justice would be done to the students and their career
would be protected.
Sravan also demanded that the State Government immediately
set up Help Centers in every District Collectorate and RDO offices so that
students and parents could report their issues rather than all of them coming
to TSBIE office in Hyderabad. He said necessary infrastructure should be
provided at the TSBIE evaluation centres and it should be ensured that proper
standards are followed in terms of number of papers given per day to the
examiners. (eom)
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