TURA: The All Meghalaya Minority Students’ Union (AMMSU) on Wednesday called for a CBI inquiry into the recent leakage of question papers of the Meghalaya Teacher Eligibility Test (MTET), which is currently being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
In his petition to the West Garo Hills deputy commissioner, the president of the union, Nur Islam, said the MTET examination was an opportunity for genuine and meritorious candidates to be appointed as teachers, but the incident had shocked and disheartened them.
“The honest and genuine candidates have lost all hope. Besides, they are also demanding re-examination with full security and CCTV camera arrangements,” he said adding such measures will prevent leakage.
“We are shocked and ashamed over the poor security system of the Education department and this is not the first time,” he said recalling the education scam of 2008-09.
“A CBI inquiry is necessary to probe the incident. The re-conduct of the examination should also be announced soon so that genuine candidates are not deprived,” Islam added.
Earlier, MDC of Balachanda, Sofior Rahman, had also demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident.
Rajabala MLA Azad Zaman, who was critical of police booking “innocent students” in his constituency in connection with the case, welcomed Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui’s decision to constitute a fact-finding team, but at the same time felt that only CBI can conduct an impartial inquiry.
Taking a snipe at the minister, Zaman said Rymbui had reportedly termed the students “purchasers” who bought the question papers to score good marks. “I am very happy about the honesty of Rymbui. At least he has accepted that the government has sold the MTET question papers to those students,” he said and wondered who should be blamed for the leakage.
“Since the education minister has accepted that the question paper has been sold by the government, please disclose the name(s) who was involved in selling the MTET question paper,” he added.
Zaman also pointed out that the students were not custodians of the question papers and yet they were arrested without any notice under Section 41 A of the CrPC (which minimises abuse of power of arrest by police). “Receiving something on mobile phone and sharing it with others is not an offence,” he added.
