Vyapam tried to skirt RTI to bury queries on OMR sheets

Times of India: Bhopal: Tuesday, 28 July 2015.

A scam-riddled Vyapam wanted to gain immunity from RTI scrutiny by writing to Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis, a key research institute set up by state government under chairmanship of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that provides impact, standardization of government schemes, to do an analysis of the board.

The letter (copy in possession with TOI) was written by former Vyapam chairman M K Roy in November 2009. This was revealed in a RTI query, which included the institute's comments on issues raised by Vyapam.

After the institute submitted an exhaustive analysis of Vyapam's functioning, the board shot off a second letter to the institute stating issues untouched in its reform model. The query on RTI ambit of Vyapam and record preservation, including OMR sheets was a serious bid by the board to evade the transparency tool, said RTI activist, Ajay Dubey. The study commissioned in 2009, coincided with the rigging of PMT exams and before the first arrests at Indore in 2012.

The first letter by former board chairman M K Roy to the School of Good Governance sought suggestions and guidelines for recruitment of coordinators and observers for exam, marking procedure of optical mark recognition (OMR) and answer sheets, conduct of online exams and choice and method of printing.

The second letter shot off by Vyapam (June 2010), stated 13 issues which were not covered in the report, which included information to be disseminated under RTI and period for record preservation. The state government has no powers to regulate RTI, barring fees of applicants, said Dubey. The letter (a copy in possession with TOI) was signed by Vyapam junior system analyst Ajay Kumar, who is in jail for tampering roll numbers of candidates.

In its reply, Institute of Good Governance stated "Orders of general administration department (GAD), key to information dissemination, needs to be followed by all state government undertakings. This issue is beyond the scope of the present study." Vyapam paid Rs 4.32 lakh to the Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis for conducting the study.

Speaking to TOI, former Vyapam chairman M K Roy said, "Yes the study was commissioned during my tenure. The report was submitted after I left the board. I refuse to comment on the study or about the query on RTI sought from the Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis. Neither do I wish to comment on the scam."

"Vyapam wanted to eliminate the role of RTI in its recruitment exams to ensure that students do not get a chance to access their original answersheets. Wanting an analysis on the period of preservation of records also indicates that Vyapam wanted to destroy OMR sheets so that the tampering of answersheets could never be identified," said RTI activist Ajay Dubey.

Another whistleblower, Anand Rai, said, "This is a subtle way to demand RTI exemption by ordering a study. The government has found all ways to muzzle the transparency tool. Central government bodies seek exemption from RTI in similar fashion."