NEW DELHI: The major payment issues faced by Class XII CBSE students while applying for access to answer sheets were caused by “mischief” by around 50 students who allegedly hacked into the CBSE portal, a senior education official claimed on Friday.
“That was why the payment detail said Rs 67,000 had to be paid for gaining access to the answer sheet for a few and even Rs 1 for some students,” the official said.
Defending the On Screen Marking System (OSM), the official repeatedly maintained that the digital evaluation process was “transparent and foolproof”.
Referring to complaints where students allegedly received scanned copies of answer sheets belonging to others, the official said only about 20 such instances had surfaced.
“Since the process was being implemented for the first time on such a large scale, the glitches happened. Out of the 11.38-odd lakh answer sheets sought by the students, a minuscule number in comparison faced the issue,” the official said.
The official also said the payment gateway-related problems had now been resolved after HDFC Bank was removed from the process following an alleged malicious attack on its portal.
“Tests were done yesterday on the gateways of the four public sector banks - Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, State Bank of India and Indian Bank - and they were smooth,” the official said.
Addressing the controversy surrounding the award of the tender for the digital evaluation process to COEMPT, the official said the company was selected only after multiple rounds of bidding.
According to the official, in the first round of bidding, where 70% weightage was assigned to technical expertise and 30% to financial capability, only Tata Consultancy Services qualified.
“Since a single bid alone cannot be accepted as per rules, it had to be cancelled,” the official explained.
The second round reportedly failed to produce any qualifying bidder.
“In the third round during the financial bid, COEMPT had quoted Rs 24.75 (including taxes) for an answer sheet while TCS had quoted Rs 60 plus tax which would be an additional 18%. The difference was huge. We need to award it to the lowest bidder only and hence COEMPT was selected,” the official said.
The official added that COEMPT was currently handling similar evaluation work in several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
Referring to a controversy linked to the company’s post-examination work in Telangana in 2019, the official said the High Court had found no wrongdoing by the firm and that a Special Leave Petition filed in the Supreme Court was later dismissed.
The official also said the firm would face penalties over the issues reported during the current evaluation process.