Calcutta
Telegraph: Patna: Friday, 05 February 2016.
A 17-year-old
girl student of Rohtas was declared "fail" in the final result of the
Class X exam conducted by the board in September 2014. Her repeated requests to
the board for re-evaluation went unheeded, forcing her to seek the intervention
of the Bihar State Human Rights Commission (BSHRC) for justice.
Re-evaluation
of the answer sheets of the girl, Priyanka Kumari, a student of Chaukhandi High
School, Sasaram in Rohtas district, around 160km south of Patna, ended up with
she being declared "pass" (successful) in first division, scoring 329
of 500 marks, which comes to about 65.8 per cent.
Interestingly,
the re-evaluation was done by a team of experts appointed by the board on the
BSHRC's directive for the third time. Priyanka, a resident of Alampur village
near Sasaram in Rohtas district, was not satisfied with two earlier
re-evaluations, which took the tally to 244 and 305, respectively.
The ordeal of
Priyanka started in September 2014 when she was declared "fail" in
the exam. She approached the board at least 10 times, requesting the senior
officials to conduct re-evaluation of the answer sheets but in vain. Even
applications submitted under the Right to Information Act (RTI) served no
purpose.
She was so
depressed with the callous attitude of the board that she had stopped taking
mealS. "She survived on milk for about three months till the matter was
taken up by the BSHRC," recalled Priyanka's uncle Dharmendra Kumar.
Finding no
help from anywhere, Priyanka knocked the door of the BSHRC after three months.
Taking a serious note of the matter, the commission ordered a probe. The board
later appointed experts, which after re-evaluation declared her successful and
awarded her 244 marks. Unsatisfied, she asked for revision and her marks
increased after every re-evaluation.
Priyanka kept
on shuttling between Sasaram and Patna for about 15 months till the case was
disposed of on January 21.
She, however,
got the copy of the order of the commission on January 27, which directed the
state government to provide her Rs 75,000, as compensation and Rs 25,000 as
scholarship, two-and-a-half times more than a girl student is given by the
education department after passing matriculation (Class X) examination.
In addition,
an assistant in the board, Ranjan Kumar, was put under suspension and nine
teachers involved in initial re-evaluation answer sheets were blacklisted and
debarred from evaluation work. "We are yet to receive the copy of the
commission's directive. It will be complied with," a deputy secretary-rank
officer of the board said.
Priyanka got
the copy of the commission's order passed by justice (retd) Mandata Singh on
January 27. "I have all respect for the judiciary (BSHRC), which finally
delivered justice and saved my career," she said, adding that the decision
would help her fulfil her dream of becoming an IAS officer.
She added
that she smelt a foul play soon after going through the marksheets. "I was
awarded only five marks (of 100) in mathematics, which raised my doubts over
the evaluation system. Then I decided to fight for justice," Priyanka, the
second among the three children of Vinod Singh, a resident of Alampur village
in Rohtas district, told The Telegraph.
Priyanka's
elder brother Sujeet, however, scored 75 per cent marks in the same exam. Her
younger brother Pradumna is a Class IX student. Her father, a farmer by
profession, is all praise for the commission for delivering justice to a bright
student, who wants to become an IAS officer.
.JPG)
.JPG)
