Health Minister evades MBBS motion

IMPHAL, July 3(IFP): Chief Minister Okram Ibobi today admitted that there has been a mistake in a question of the MBBS exam and that the moderators and question setters have goofed up.

The CM was answering to a joint attention calling motion on behalf of the Health Minister Phungzathang Tonsing who was conspicuously absent from the proceedings of the House today.

NCP MLA Laishom Ibomcha and Trinamool leader Dr I Ibohalbi mentioned in their joint motion that the results of the said exam have been announced thrice and the marks of the candidates have fluctuated.

MLA Ibomcha said that the first result list was uploaded on the website on June 11. Afterwards it was removed and a second list was made available on June 22, finally another list supposed to be the final one was notified on June 23.

He questioned as to under which rule the two prior lists were cancelled and that it is a clear mismanagement of the selection list. The MLA suggested that there should be transparency in such matters and the guilty party needs to be penalized to avoid similar recurrence.

On the same note, Dr Ibohanbi voiced on how the first notified list was uploaded without prior approval of the selection committee by the engineers of Exxom Automation Pvt Ltd.

Charging that the new list has mentioned different allotment of marks each time and further that the category of the candidates has been found to be different, i.e, from general to OBC, OBC to sports etc., he said that such mistakes can affect the mentality of the students as it may be suspected that the merit list has been smudged by the concerned officials.

In the state of affairs, the MLA suggested that a fact finding committee should be instituted and the results should be declared null and void.

The Chief Minister said that it is fact that a mistake has been made in one multiple choice question which is an embarrassment for his government.

Clarifying that no one knows who set the question, he stated that the selection committee consists of the health director, commissioner and another government representative.

Further, moderators have also been deputed for the concerned subjects. The leader of the House said that the engineers of Exxom had arrived at Imphal for the technical jobwork only. Uploading the list was done on June 11 last and candidates were given time to file complaints by June 25.

Ibobi said that three students had complained, and one complaint for Physics multiple choice was found to be faulty. The right answer which was said to be choice ‘C’ should be ‘B’. The error was acknowledged by the moderators and Exxom.

In order to correct the mistake, the lists were rectified and hence the marks were different. Expressing regret, he clarified that there was no manipulation of the results and was human error.

On further complaints from Ibohanbi that the erring persons must be punished and that the parents of candidates may file a case, the Chief Minister voiced that the mistake pointed out by the students have been corrected and the final merit list is just. He added that none can stop people from approaching the court, but justice has been done in the regard.