Testing time for Telangana as entrance exam papers leaked

A popular Telugu Poet some time back lamented on the ever shrinking world of Telugu people. Deriding Telugu’s obsessions with ridiculously fewer things, Rallabandi Kavita Prasad wrote, ”US is their country and English is their only language. Beyond Passing EAMCET they see nothing in the world”.

 

For the past two days, Telangana government has found itself in a mess created by the worst-ever paper leak scam of the EAMCET exam. EAMCET stands for Engineering, Agriculture, and Medicine Common Entrance Test, held to select the candidates for admissions to respective courses in state’s colleges.

 

Some brokers successfully sneaked into the highly confidential process in the setting and printing of question papers, undertaken by the agency (a government college). The question papers were allegedly sold to all who could afford to pay ₹60 lakh.

 

The confirmation of the leak unfolded in quite a dramatic way. Giri Ravi, an engineer working in Gulf, came back home on a two-month leave to supervise his daughter’s preparation for the EAMCET. After the announcement of the results of the test held in May, he grew suspicious about the ranks some erratic students secured from Parkal town in his Warangal district.

 

He made his own inquiries and found that many of the top rankers from the village performed poorly in the previous exam i.e. EAMCET -1. He informed the local media and the police about the huge difference in the ranks they got in the two EAMCETS.

 

The investigations by the media confirmed Giri’s appprehension. When the local media took up the matter creating commotion across the state, the government was forced to refer the issue for a through inquiry to the CID. CID officially confirmed the paper leakage on Thursday.

 

The moment a son or daughter is born in Telugu land, parents wish him or her to become a doctor or engineer and fly to the US to earn dollars.

This obsession with the medical and engineering professions has made the preparation for EAMCET a business worth crores. In their quest to make their children a doctor or an engineer, parents start searching for all legal and illegal avenues, which finally gave way to the EAMCET paper leak scam in Telangana two days back.

 

Flushed with money earned from flourishing real-estate business, political brokerage and contracts, some parents are ready to pay any amount if there is anybody who could leak the question paper to their wards. In the current scam, Telangana CID exposed the state government’s inefficiency in conducting the examination

 

When vernacular media reported that question paper was leaked in the recent EAMCET-2 held on May 15, education minister Kadiyam Srihari initially rubbished the reports.

 

With pressure mounting, the government referred the matter to CID for an investigation, which confirmed the leakage of question papers by a professional gang led by one Rajagopal Reddy, who is reportedly accused in Karnataka as well for similar offences.

 

The CID arrested the kingpin Reddy and many others. Even though there is no information on the number of students who ‘purchased’ questions from two sets of Question Papers, CID suspects that about 100 to 150 students, of which many are from leading corporate coaching firms, might have been benefitted by the leakage.

 

Since Rajagopal Reddy is a professional in the leakage trade, there is no guarantee that he had not resorted to selling question papers in previous years as well. The role of the so-called corporate firms is also under the CID scanner.

 

But it is not that easy to nail these people as they are highly politically influential. It is common knowledge that finally, the system will identify some fall guys from lower rungs of the well-knit group of scamsters.

 

But the leak shattered the dreams of the many genuine students, who cracked the exam by sheer dint of determination and hard work. The Telangana government has reportedly thought of the cancelling the exam after the CID’s confirmation of leakage to wash its hands off the scam.

 

But after seeing the opposition from the thousands of students and parents, the government developed cold feet and postponed the decision to Friday.

 

As securing an admission in a medical college is a ‘life and death’ problem for the students and their parents, scores of students yesterday met the officials and ministers, with teary eyes, to plead against the proposal to cancel the admissions, because some of the students, ranked between 1000 and 1500, said they were sure to get admission in government colleges and didn’t want to lose the chance.

 

“If the EAMCET is reconducted, there is no guarantee that they could secure the same rank again. It is a shock. My daughter is in depression,” said Sankar Rao, whose daughter secured 1094 rank.

 

Read more: BJP leader arrested in PU Chemistry paper leak case

 

“You can’t imagine the toil my daughter underwent to prepare for the exam. She is crying inconsolably. We don’t accept the cancellation of admission of EAMSET-2 and will oppose tooth and nail the punishing of innocents for the fraud committed by a handful students and parents,” Rao told Asianet Newsable.

 

Thousands of students and parents urged the government not to hastily cancel the exam and harm the interest of students. “This trauma may lead even to suicides. Such is the sentimental attachment, the students developed for an admission in a medical college,” said a father who came to secretariat to meet the education minister in Hyderabad.

 

The entire state is waiting for the decision of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today. As it has the potential to tarnish the image of his government, given the importance of the exam in Telangana state, it is expected that Rao will act in a way that innocents are not punished.