Alleged irregularities in the postgraduate medical entrance exam have cast a shadow on the EAMCET exams too with parents and students worried about whether such scams are going unnoticed and if genuine students are losing out.
Lending credence to such fears is the attempt to rig the medical exam in 2010. Officials, however, successfully foiled the bid, arresting Gurivi Reddy and his gang, hours before the exam. The same gang was caught encouraging mass copying using hi-tech gadgets in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) entrance exam in Chandigarh.
EAMCET has seen a series of leakages in 80s and 90s and exams were cancelled after the media exposure. In 1985, re-exam was conducted while a senior official of the Board of Technical Education was arrested in 1991 for his role in the leakage. In 1996, the leak was traced to a printing press in Kolkata and the accused official later committed suicide. The fact that nefarious elements are making efforts to rig the exam year after year is a cause of fear.
“Since a single mark can make or mar one’s career, we are obviously worried,” says Anuradha, mother of a medical/engineering seat aspirant. She says that during this crucial preparation period, her daughter is more worried about scams than the exam.
Officials maintain that every effort is being made to plug leakage, halt malpractice and infuse confidence among aspirants. EAMCET-2014 convenor N.V. Ramana Rao explained the effort that is going into scanning the cheaters.
“Suspicious applicants are being identified and verification is being done with various sources including their antecedents and relation with earlier suspects. Thumb impressions of candidates will be collected and verification of all candidates who failed to submit Aadhaar card is on,” he said.
Officials have decided to extract students’ details from the Intermediate data and any effort of impersonation will be curbed, Prof. Rao said. The current year invigilators will also be trained on gadgets that cheaters are expected to use.
