Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University (MPBOU), established under an act of the state Assembly to meet the goal of promoting distance education, is in the midst of a raging controversy due to allegations of massive irregularities in the valuation of examinations and an FIR registered earlier in a separate case against vice-chancellor S.K. Singh under Sections 120B, 420, 409, 467, 468 of IPC and sections 13(1)D and 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
When this correspondent met state governor Ram Naresh Yadav on Sunday, he confirmed there is no dearth of complaints against the MPBOU V-C and said an inquiry at Raj Bhavan’s initiative earlier gave him a clean chit. At this juncture, he said, “One does not know where to begin or end an inquiry since the list of complaints against the V-C is so huge.”
What has made MPBOU controversial is the FIR registered by state Economic Offences Wing against the VC. He is facing the charge of favouring a particular printer from Lucknow for printing confidential exam-related material.
Highlighting another issue, sources revealed that against the norm of giving copies of 80 students to each examiner for central valuation during an 8-hour working day to maintain standards, MPBOU VC permitted the raising of this limit to about 200 copies. Barkatullah University Examination Controller SVS Rajput observed: “if an examiner handles 200 copies per day, the quality of assessment of answer sheets is bound to suffer.”
LLM previous and final year results for 2011 were posted on the MPBOU website in July this year with a small percentage of students clearing these exams. A proposal for fresh valuation for these exams was moved by the VC’s office and a committee of university functionaries recently signed on the dotted line saying some students have demanded fresh valuation. Revaluation of 2011 B.Ed examination copies on the request of about 320 students is another issue in focus. More than 60 per cent of these students were declared successful on Monday. This has put a question mark on the valuation process. Evaluation work, under MPBOU’s confidential section, has been entrusted to many temporary employees. A consultant with a temporary appointment for a period of six months has been made in-charge of Central Valuation. MPBOU’s confidential section also has a number of casual workers, who have been retained through a security agency.