By IANS
Lucknow : The vice chancellor of an Uttar Pradesh university has admitted to "errors" in the results of the medical entrance test following angry protests by unsuccessful candidates and sealing of the institute.
Purvanchal University Vice Chancellor K.P. Singh reportedly admitted to discrepancies in the results of the Combined Pre-Medical Test (CPMT), but chose to attribute it to "technical errors". He even accepted that the "errors" could have affected nearly three-fourths of the total result.
Taking serious note of irregularities in the CPMT examination, the Uttar Pradesh government Saturday night ordered sealing of the university offices as well as the vice chancellor's residence in Jaunpur.
According to a top government official, "there was reason to believe that some bigwigs of the university were involved in fudging the results".
He did not rule out the possibility of involvement of the vice chancellor himself, who was being pointedly accused as the kingpin of the bungling that came to light when the results were declared Friday evening.
A special seven-member team of experts was flown to Jaunpur Sunday morning to go deep into what appears to be yet another scam of the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
The results had evoked sharp response from unsuccessful candidates who went on a rampage in different parts of the state, staging roadblocks and indulging in arson, including torching a government bus in the state capital. An unsuccessful candidate took the extreme step of committing suicide by jumping before a moving train.
Meanwhile, even as vice chancellor Singh was busy pleading before Governor T.V. Rajeshwar that he had done no wrong, government sleuths were suspecting major play of money behind the suspected irregularities.
The decision to institute a high- level probe was taken by none other than Chief Minister Mayawati, who has made it clear that the "guilty would be brought to book".
This is not the first time that gross irregularities have been alleged in the state's medical entrance examinations.
According to a senior official in the chief minister's personal secretariat, "the chief minister has reason to believe that an admission racket was thriving with the connivance of university authorities and some coaching institutes, who were known to be charging hundreds of thousands as underhand money for guaranteed admissions."
He said that though "such elements might have got away so far, but this time heads were bound to roll".
The probe team comprises special secretary (medical education) S.K. Raghuvanshi, director general (medical education) Dr. Kamal Sahni, National Informatics Centre (NIC) technical director S.F.A. Naqvi, Uttar Pradesh Technical University vice chancellor U.S. Tomar, besides three technical experts from Delhi.