Minister resigns over increasing son's marks

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa's School and Mass Education Minister Bishnu Charan Das resigned on Friday after allegations that he directed the officials of his department to increase the marks of his son in the high school certificate exams held this year.

Das denied the charge and attributed his son's increased marks to a possible computer error. However, he was facing protests from opposition parties and various student organisations across the state for the last few days.

He submitted his resignation in the afternoon to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the state secretariat here. "I have resigned on moral grounds," he said. 

The resignation has been accepted, an official of the chief minister's office said.

Trouble started for Das after Debendra Chandra Mishra, a top official of the Board of Secondary Education Orissa, got a phone call from an unknown person in the first week of this month. The caller alleged that marks of several students whose parents and relatives were in top government jobs were manipulated. As an example, he gave the roll number of a student.

After investigation, officials found that the number belonged to Bijoy Shankar Das, the minister's son.

In the mark sheet, Bijoy was awarded 89 in Oriya in place of 39, 80 in English against 50, 60 in Mathematics paper-II in place of 40, 50 in Science instead of 40 and in Social Science paper II, it was 54 instead of 45.

Patnaik had earlier deputed the state's chief secretary to probe into the allegation. But he has not submitted his report yet.