Times of India: Nagpur: Saturday, August 29, 2015.
A student and RTI activist counfounded the Nagpur University bureaucracy by obtaining copy of her answer sheet in 10 days that was taking weeks through official channels.
Ankita Shah, a student of third year at Central India College of Law and an RTI activist, applied for a photocopy of her answer sheet of Human Rights subject on July 24 by paying Rs350. More than a month later, she is yet to get it. She played smart by applying for a copy of same answersheet under RTI on July 14. To her utter surprise, she received it just over a week later on July 23, that too for just Rs40, from the same authorities. Even for its inspection, NU just charged her Rs10.
Interestingly, the university is not allowing her to apply for revaluation on the basis of copy obtained under RTI even though winter examinations would be conducted in October-November and most probably her revaluation results would not be announced by that time. Controller of examinations (COE) Anil Hirekhan (additional charge) justified NU's decision. He insisted she must go through usual procedure defined in the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, as there was no mention of photocopy obtained through RTI.
"It was just a single application and therefore, we managed to provide her instantly. The request of photocopies for revaluation come to NU through respective colleges. As those are in a bunch, it takes time to retrieve them from godown and make photocopies. In fact, the revaluation procedure itself is lengthy and NU authorities can't help it, unless changes are made in the existing Act," he said.
Shah accused NU of deliberately delaying the revaluation to earn money from students, who were already under the financial burden. "For same photocopy of my answer-sheet I paid Rs350 to NU, which I got for just Rs40 through RTI. In fact, those Rs40 were not needed as RTI authority allows one to inspect the original for just Rs10. Only if you want a copy you have to pay based on number of pages. Even though there was no use of photocopy, I decided to take it."
Her examination concluded on May 11 and results were announced on July 13. The deadline for applying for photocopies was July 24 while that for revaluation was July 27. "From this, it was amply clear that NU wanted to earn money as we have to pay a whopping Rs2,000 towards exam fees even if we fail in a single subject. In a majority of cases, the revaluation results are declared after winter exams. Moreover, 85% students clear their subjects in revaluation but still unnecessarily have to pay winter exam fees and also put in effort to study, thus wasting precious time and money," Shah said.
She also wrote to VC Siddharthvinayaka Kane in this regard. Hirekhan informed that such problems would not crop up in future as NU had initiated a series of reforms for expediting results. "From winter exams, the photocopies would be issued from spot evaluation centres themselves, thus saving about a month's time. Moreover, the answer books would be evaluated from the same centre and not sent to godown which would help in fast declaration of results," he said.
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