Patna: Opposition members in the Council on Wednesday raised the issue of alleged irregularities in student admission in undergraduate courses in different colleges through a new system in which the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has been given the responsibility to allocate institutions to the applicants.

The matter was raised through an adjournment motion moved by RJD MLC Subodh Rai stating that students with less marks had been allotted seats for honours courses in the new online system introduced from this year and which was being handled by the BSEB.

He said the board chairman was an "inept" person.

Rai was joined by Ramchandra Purbey of his party who stated that the chief minister keeps on talking about development with justice but he appeared to have forgotten the fact that development was a by-product of education. "The prestige of the state has been dampened because of the poor functioning of the BSEB," he said.

When some members from the treasury bench objected to the act of the RJD leaders claiming that the adjournment motion had still not been accepted so any debate on the issue should not take place, Purbey maintained that in certain circumstances members had the right to speak on an adjournment motion before it had been accepted.

Purbey then went on to state that how the BSEB had failed to handle the answer sheets of board examinations, which according to rules must be kept in its custody for three years after examination.

The senior RJD leader said in many cases the board had not been able to get back the examined answer sheets from the evaluation centres and it had also come to light recently that answer sheets of recent examinations had been sold as scrap.

While the RJD members were speaking, tourism minister Pramod Kumar spoke on Charwaha Vidyalayas, a concept which had been introduced when RJD chief Lalu Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar. His comment infuriated Leader of Opposition Rabri Devi who countered the minister stating that the concept was being used in several countries.

Amid these assertions, council vice-chairman Harun Rashid informed the House that the adjournment motion had been rejected following which the House resumed its routine business.