RGUHS Officials Tech Trick Minimum Internal Marks of 35%

Controversies and scams refuse to die down at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

A two-member committee, headed by retired additional chief secretary J K Arora, which probed the internal assessment (IA) marks scandal at RGUHS, has found that the university itself is guilty of tampering and alterations of internal assessment marks of 14 students of six medical colleges in September 2004.

The committee, in its final report to the government — accessed by Express under the Right to Information Act — has stated that the tampering and alterations took place at the computer operators’ level in the computer section of the university. Since the illegal modification of marks amounts to criminal offence, the committee has recommended a thorough probe by Corps of Detectives (CoD) to take further action.

The probe report states that four students belonging to MRMC Medical College, Gulbarga; JN Medical College, Belgaum and KIMS, Bangalore were issued admission tickets though they had secured less than 35 per cent marks in IA exams. “The university is responsible for not sending the list of ineligible students well in time. The university has also not taken any steps to ensure its instructions regarding issue of hall tickets are being followed strictly,” states the report. The committee has asked RGUHS to take action against the colleges and also write to the management of these colleges to take appropriate action against the staff involved.

In all, the committee has traced 16 cases of alterations, 13 in internal assessment and three in university practical exams in different subjects.

These students were issued hall tickets though they hadn’t secured the minimum prescribed marks in the IA exams in contravention of the Medical Council of India regulations. However, no irregularities were observed in the university theory exams.

Following widespread allegations over tampering of internal assessment marks in the September 2004 exams, the then Chancellor T N Chaturvedi directed the Government to order an independent inquiry by experts under section 8 of the RGUHS Act 1994. Consequently a two-member committee comprising J K Arora and former RGUHS vice-chancellor S Chandrashekar Shetty was constituted, which submitted its findings and recommendations in two parts — one in December 2005 and the other in June 2006.