The forged marksheet scandal unearthed in 2008,involving former cabinet minister Singhi Ram and his daughter,was just the tip of the iceberg of a major scandal or so it seems. The Himachal Pradesh School Education Board (HPSEB) has traced the origin of the recent case,in which candidates were declared pass without appearing for exams,to the private tuition academy business in Kangra. These private academies advertise themselves as preparatory centres for candidates who do not pursue regular education and help them appear as private candidates. Through advertisements,they also claim to have a high success rate, says Additional Superintendent of Police,Kangra,Omapati Jamwal. Giving details of their modus operandi,an officer said these academies managed to procure scanned copies of original answer sheets on which ghost writers would write the exams of candidates. The investigation found a majority of the beneficiaries of the scam had appeared as private candidates and were enrolled at such tuition academies. Police have cracked down on about six private tuition academies in and around Dharamsala,including MCM Academy run by one Suresh Chaudhary,another academy run by one Virender Singh and a couple of academies run by one Ashwani Dogra under the name of Divya Jyoti. In the case of Singhi Rams daughter,a forged marksheet of Class XII had been procured from the board in 2005. She had used the forged marks to get admission in a Delhi college She was given 90 per cent marks by the Himachal board,though she had failed in the Class XII CBSE examination. In the present case,however,it is yet to be found out how the beneficiaries have been able to misuse forged marksheets to secure admissions elsewhere. Board Chairman C L Gupta retires this week. The government has so far not named his successor and the inquiry ordered by the government through a high-powered committee headed by IAS officer Onkar Sharma is still on.
