Karnataka: At last, PU evaluation to begin tomorrow

Bengaluru: Despite pre-university lecturers continuing their boycott of the valuation of the II PUC final examinations, the government set the ball rolling on Monday with college principals and education department officers beginning the coding of answer sheets in 46 valuation centres across the state, including Bengaluru.

The coding work will be completed by Tuesday evening and the valuation work will begin on Wednesday, going by an education department officer.
The day started with a series of meetings between primary and secondary education minister, Kimmane Rathnakar and senior officials of the PU board and education department. Later speaking to reporters,

Mr Rathnakar promised there would be no problem with the evaluation and the results would be announced on time. As for the agitating lecturers, he once again ruled out accepting their demands.

"We have offered a formula, but the lecturers association is not ready to accept it. So we have made alternative arrangements for the valuation work," he said.
Meanwhile, the PU department has issued notices to all the lecturers, who did not turn up for the valuation work on Monday, asking why disciplinary action should not be taken against them, and why criminal cases should be not be registered against them for their continued defiance.

PU lecturers association general secretary, Nagesh S,claimed the notices were paving the way for arrest of the agitating lecturers. Students , meanwhile, appeared unhappy with the state government's decision to go ahead with the valuation in the absence of the PU lecturers, afraid that the substitutes may not be able to do as good a job.

"Erratic valuation is a big problem every year. We want the state government and the agitating lecturers to resolve their problems and let the valuation proceed, " pleaded a student,  Shalmili Bhat, who is hoping to do medicine.

An education department officer also noted that while PU lecturers received training for the valuation and  could be punished if they  messed it up, no such action could be taken against private college or retired lecturers doing the job in their place.

CID arrests two research scholars from Mysuru
The CID officials probing the second PU chemistry question paper leak case arrested two research scholars on Monday morning. With this, the number of arrests in the case has gone up to 10.

The two arrested accused have been identified as K. Nagendra, 37, a resident of Kuvempu Nagar in Mysuru, and Thimmegowda, a resident of Sharadadevinagar in Mysuru. Nagendra had enrolled for Ph.D in Biochemistry in Bengaluru University (Central College Campus) and was running a tutorial, Intellectual Correspondence Coaching Centre, in Nagarabavi. He was in touch with the suspected kingpin Shivakumaraiah and had sold the leaked Chemistry question paper to several students.

“The other accused, Thimmegowda, had enrolled for PhD in Economics in Karnataka State Open University in Mysuru and was staying in a friend’s room on the Bengaluru University campus. He knew Shivakumaraiah for the last 6-7 years. Even he is involved in the question paper leak and has sold it to several students and made money,” the police said.

The CID teams had questioned the duo last week and also searched their rooms. Nagendra’s tutorial too was raided and several incriminating documents were seized. “The two were arrested based on the call detail reports and their questioning. It is yet to be investigated as to how many students did they sell the question paper to and how much money they made,” an official said.

The police are also grilling them to know the whereabouts of Shivakumaraiah and his son Dinesh, who are absconding after the CID teams started investigating the case. The accused duo was produced before a court on Monday evening and both have been remanded to police custody till April 25.
The other three accused, K.S. Ranganath, Anil Kumar B. and Muralidhar K.M., who were arrested on April 13, were also produced before the court as their police custody ended on Monday, Anil’s police custody was extended for three days till April 21, while the other two were remanded to judicial custody.