70 students caught copying

A cramped examination hall at Malda College on Friday.
Telegraph picture

TT, Malda, May 8: Seventy examinees were caught cheating in the undergraduate Part I examinations at Malda College here today.

The students were appearing for the additional Bengali paper.

The teachers of Malda College accused the Gour Banga University authorities of conducting the examinations without proper infrastructure. The students of Gour College, Malda Women's College and Kaliachak College are taking exams at Malda College.

"In our college, the exams are being held in 13 classrooms. The number of examinees is 2,692. They are all sitting on the benches squeezed together. There are five students on one bench writing the exams. There are no rooms for women examinees. We had written to the varsity that we do not have the capacity to sit so many examinees before the exams commenced. But they did not listen to us," said a Malda College teacher on condition of anonymity.

Dhritisankar Mandal, the chairman of the varsity exam committee and secretary of the Malda College Teachers' Council, said the institution could not accommodate more than 2,000 examinees at a time.

The teacher in-charge of Malda College, Tapan Kumar Mondal, said: "We are facing problems because of lack of space. The cramped rooms are emboldening students to resort to unfair means. The invigilators caught 70 examinees and they were not allowed to write their papers."

On the first day of the examinations on Wednesday, eight examinees were caught cheating and were disallowed from taking the tests. The Part I examinations for B.A, B.Sc, and B.Com for colleges affiliated to Gour Banga University began on Wednesday.

Sanatan Das, the controller of examinations of the varsity, said nearly 15,000 students were appearing for the Part I examinations.

"About 15,000 candidates are taking their Part I exams in four 'away' centres. They are on our varsity campus, Malda College, Gour College and Malda Women's College. We have reports that there were some cases of copying at the Malda College centre and that is being looked into," Das said.

The vice-chancellor of Gour Banga University, Gopal Chandra Mishra, accused Malda College of not being able to conduct the exams properly.

"The Malda College authorities did not inform us about their infrastructure before the exams. They should have told us that so many examinees could not be accommodated. However, I have been told about today's incident of copying at Malda College. The matter is being looked into," he said.