Bihar chief minister calls for direct action against 'education mafia'

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - dissolving a committee constituted to probe into alleged irregularities in evaluation of marks in class 12 examinations - has ordered direct action against the culprits.

Mr Kumar held a meeting with Education minister Ashok Choudhary, Principal Secretary (Education) D S Gangwar and Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh.

"The government has dissolved the committee,"Mr Choudhary told reporters after the meeting and said it was decided to go for direct action into irregularities without any further delay by registering an FIR or police case against 'education mafias'.

"It was discussed that the committee constituted by the Board would have taken time and arrived on a conclusion that irregularities have been committed, which prima facie has already been established. There is no point delaying action and hence, the state government decided to go for direct action by registering an FIR and initiating action against the culprits," the minister said.

Later, an official statement said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar directed the education department to lodge an FIR in connection with alleged irregularities in Vaishali in Intermediate exam for the current year.

The chief minister ordered that the entire matter be probed by the police and stern action be initiated against those found guilty, the statement said.

Mr Kumar has instructed to make arrangements for continuous assessment of students in higher school levels, it added. Mr Kumar had yesterday asserted that no one would be spared and action would be taken after fixing responsibility.

The BSEB had yesterday constituted a four-member committee headed by Patna High Court Judge Justice (retd) Ghanshyam Prasad to probe the irregularities in the evaluation of marks for 10+2 Intermediate exam.

The BSEB had on June 4 decided to cancel the results of topper Saurabh Shrestha and third topper in Science stream Rahul Kumar after they were found not up to mark during a re-test conducted by a team of experts on 13 toppers in Arts and Science streams of Intermediate level in the current year.

Arts topper Ruby Rai, in an interview to media, had called Political Science as "Prodigal Science", which according to her was about cooking, and has been directed to face experts on June 11.