LUCKNOW: On the sixth day of the ongoing Class 10 and 12 examinations of the UP Board of Secondary Education, the Class 12 English paper was leaked in Ballia district before the commencement of the exam on Wednesday. The English exam was scheduled to be held in the second shift from 2 pm to 5.15 pm across 75 districts of the state on Wednesday.
In response to the paper leak, the Board authorities, following state government orders, cancelled the English examination across two dozen districts where the leaked paper had to be circulated. However, the authorities decided to go ahead with the English examination as per schedule in the remaining 51 districts of the state, informed Vinay Kumar Pandey, director (secondary education).
Taking punitive action against the officials concerned, the Secondary Education department suspended the Ballia District Inspector of Schools (DIOS), Brijesh Mishra, with immediate effect and rescheduled the English examination for Class
12 to April 13 in the first shift from 8 am to 11.15 pm, said senior officials.
The districts where the exam was cancelled following the paper leak included Agra, Mainpuri, Mathura, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Bagpat, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Unnao, Sitapur, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Jalaun, Chitrakoot, Ambedkarnagar, Pratapgarh, Gonda,
Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ballia, Varanasi, Kanpur Dehat, Etah and Shamli.
According to education department sources, the exam was cancelled on “suspicion of paper leak” of series 316 ED and 316 EI of Intermediate English exam in Ballia.
Meanwhile, taking cognisance of the issue, UP CM Yogi Adityanath directed the Special Task Force (STF) of the UP police to carry out a probe into the case, invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against the culprits and bring them to book at the earliest. UP Additonal Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that an FIR was registered in Ballia district. A unit of STF Varanasi had left for Ballia to conduct the probe into the case. He added that at least 10 suspects were detained and are being interrogated in connection with the paper leak.
Newly-appointed Secondary Education Minister Gulab Devi said that strict action would be ensured against the culprits as the state government was committed to conduct free and fair Board examinations.
As per sources, the English question paper and its solution were going viral on social media in the morning. There were even reports that the paper was available in the open market at Rs 500. Following the information, the Ballia district administration alerted the Board, which cancelled the paper across 24 districts where the paper had to be circulated.
The UP Board examinations had commenced on March 24 as per the original exam schedule. Around 52 lakh students, including 28 lakh of high school and 24 lakh of intermediate, are registered to appear in the exams.
Meanwhile, taking the state government to task over the paper leak, the Opposition accused it of playing with the future of lakhs of students.
Launching a scathing attack on the Yogi government, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the state government was deliberately getting the papers leaked so that no examination could be completed.
Linking it to the alleged failure of the UP government to provide jobs to the youth, the Leader of Opposition claimed that the government was shying away from giving jobs to those who passed out, so it was ensuring that examinations were not completed.
Taking to Twitter, the SP chief, on a sarcastic note, asked the Yogi government to run a bulldozer, even of paper, on the paper mafia at least for the sake of it.
BSP chief Mayawati also demanded strictest action against the paper mafia who were playing with the future of the students and bringing a bad name to the state in the entire country.