Dental graduates cry foul over PG exam

Times of India: Bhubaneswar: Sunday, 12 April 2015.

Students of SCB Dental College have alleged large-scale irregularities in the evaluation of answer sheets of PG dental entrance examination.

They have submitted a memorandum to principal secretary of the health department demanding a thorough probe into the incident.

Answer scripts obtained through RTI also corroborate the allegations and clearly show that the evaluation is faulty, sources said. The answer sheet of one candidate, Moushmi Sahu, shows that she has been awarded -1 for the answer she was supposed to get 0. A copy of the answer sheet is in the possession of TOI.

"It was clearly mentioned in the instructions that if a candidate does not know the answer then he/ she should darken the 'E' option and the candidate will be awarded 0 for it. Surprisingly, instead of 0 the candidate has been awarded -1, due to which her score came down and she failed to get a seat," alleged a student on condition of anonymity.

Students claimed that it is not a sole case. "Due to faulty evaluation, many deserving candidates have been deprived of taking admission into PG course," said another student, who did not wish to be named.

The students have alleged that no transparency was maintained in the examination.

They highlighted that Odisha has stopped conducting MBBS and PG medical examination and has been picking students from the merit list of all India entrance exams like AIPMT and AIPGEE. But the PG dental examination is still being conducted by SCB Dental College. The students claimed that they will wait for the government to act and resort to agitation if no step is taken.

Principal of the college Jayant Das ruled out the possibility of any faulty evaluation or irregularity.

"The students have some confusion over the marks and instead of clarifying it with us, they have started complaining about it," he said.

"The computer has awarded -1 instead of 0 due to some technical error, but we have checked each answer script thoroughly and tabulated correct marks in their marksheet," added Das.