Protests against Chemistry exam paper leak continue

Protests continued for the second day today in front of the Pre-University Board here against the leak of the Class XII Chemistry paper for the second time within 10 days.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and some students' organisations staged protests demanding justice, as they held the state government responsible for "mismanagement" of the examination, affecting about 1.74 lakh students.

Police used force to vacate students from the area as they tried to enter the PU Board office. Many of them were detained as a preventive measure.

The examination that first took place on March 21 was  cancelled. Hours before the rescheduled Chemistry exams was to begin yesterday, Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) was alerted about the question paper leak at two locations in the state.

The Karnataka government, that came under sharp criticism from the public, students and the opposition for the question paper leak, had suspended 40 officers and other staff in the Pre-University Department.

The Opposition has demanded the resignation of Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today met PU lecturers association members who have threatened to boycott evaluation of II PU exam papers, demanding implementation of G Kumar Naik report, recommending better pay scales for them.

Asking them not to boycott evaluation in the interest of students, Siddarmaiah assured them that their request would be looked into, but told them to first attend to evaluation, official sources said.

Home Minister G Parameswara had yesterday told reporters that CID was probing the matter and government is very serious about it. "They are finding out who the culprits are - whether they are insiders or outsiders," he had said.

Ratnakar had said the re-examination would be held on April 12 and that the DGP CID has been requested to conduct a speedy probe into the leak of both March 21 exam and the re-examination question paper, find out the source behind it and punish those responsible.