Students give fake mark sheets in UP to get free laptops

The lure of free laptops has been driving the youths to commit forgery in the state.

The officers in Lucknow have received reports that the students are trying to get the laptops by giving fake intermediate mark sheets.

Sources said a student of a local college here had made an attempt to get the machine on the basis of a fake mark sheet when chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had distributed the laptops here a few months ago.

The student, identified as Veer Pal, would have succeeded in his attempt. However, but he lost the fake mark sheet a couple of days before the distribution of the machine.

He lodged an FIR and tried to persuade the officers to include his name in the beneficiaries’ list by submitting a copy of the FIR.

But they turned him away and asked to get a duplicate mark sheet from the UP Board. It later turned out that Veer Pal had failed to clear intermediate examinations and had got a fake mark sheet prepared from some gang in Allahabad.

He also said several other students, who had also failed, had similar mark sheets. The officers are now in a fix as many such students might already have succeeded in getting the machine with fake certificates.

79,491 laptops given

Under the ambitious scheme to distribute free laptops to students who clear class 12 exams in Uttar Pradesh, against a target of more than 15 lakh laptops to be distributed free only 79,491 have been given away.

Official sources cite frequent changes in the state secondary education department and the dwindling interest of the political leadership as the main reasons behind the slow pace of the project.

They say that 3.15 lakh laptops delivered for distribution in 48 more districts are lying in godowns and stores for want of finalisation of dates for distribution.

After a lull of several months, the distribution resumed in June. The last time these were distributed in Firozabad on June 24.