IAS officer trying hard to curb mass copying in Bhind

BHOPAL: A young IAS officer is trying hard to curb mass copying in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh where more than 1,800 students have been caught copying so far in ongoing board exams.
This north Madhya Pradesh district accounts for more than 90% of cases of copying, an issue again highlighted again by pictures of people scaling school wall in Bihar to help students cheat.
On Friday morning, when B Vijay Datta, chief executive officer, Bhind panchayat, headed towards Gyanwati exam centre in the town, cheating mafia informed people gathered outside the centre about the ‘impending trouble”. He was accompanied by Bhind additional SP Amrit Mina. By the time, Datta’s vehicle reached the centre, many people had already fled and there was an uneasy calm in room. As he went around the exam room, he caught 35 students using unfair means. Same day, he caught 18 more in PS Public school exam centre. He caught an imposter who was appearing for exam for some other student.
Curb on this menace is a big challenge in Bhind as cheating mafia terrorizes teachers engaged in conducting exams. Many of them wanted to be withdrawn from the duty while a large number of them applied for chutti (leave) citing medical reasons.
Datta is one of several nodal officers supervising board exams. But his presence is enough to put scare in cheating mafia of Bhind, said DN Mishra, district project coordinator, who is involved in carrying out operations to check cheating.
Talking to TOI, Datta said, “It’s a task given to us. We have been trying to improve the situation. It’s not me alone, but other officers are also trying hard.”
Mishra, who has stopped venturing out in the night ever since he has started catching students for using unfair means said that “whenever I am in trouble, I take help of CEO saáb”.Over a period of time, cheating in exams has been “institutionalized” in Bhind, a retired teacher of Bhind JS Bhadoria said.
There are about 150 high school and higher secondary schools in Bhind, he said, adding, but there are more than 350 private schools.
“Students from neighbouring districts of UP and MP take admission here with an assurance from the mafia to clear board exams. It’s a deep-rooted nexus of school owners, education department and local administration,” he said.