Patna, March 23: Education minister P.K. Shahi, who has been under fire for his utterances on large-scale use of unfair means in the ongoingmatriculation exams, today defended his stand, saying "cheating was prevalent everywhere".
"In which exams are unfair means not used? It is used right from matriculation to UPSC exams. There is a CBI probe into the AIIMS admission exams. In which state are unfair means not used?" Shahi remarked while replying to the budgetary debate of his department in the Assembly.
The budgetary demand, of Rs 22,027 crore, was passed by voice vote amid a walkout by the BJP legislators.
When photographs of mass cheating in the ongoing exams appeared in the media, the minister had blamed the guardians and well-wishers of the examinees and expressed helplessness in putting an end to use of unfair means.
The Opposition BJP demanded Shahi's resignation and Patna High Court took suo motu cognisance of the minister's statement and directed the state government to take action to stop use of unfair means. The education department panicked and announced that district magistrates and superintendents of police had been asked to take steps to check cheating.
During the debate today, BJP MLAs took a dig at Shahi for expressing helplessness and alleged that he had made a mockery of the exams.
Shahi, during his reply, said he had not expressed helplessness. "I had said that the issue needs a debate. The photographs of three or four centres do not mean that cheating is going on in all the 1,150 examination centres. We are capable of taking action against use of unfair means," he said.
The minister declared that there were over 2 crore students aged from six to 14 years in government schools in Bihar. "We do not claim that everything is perfect. But when we came to power, there were a large number of children outside school and inadequate teachers," he said by way of stressing on the JDU's claims that it has helped improve the education scenario in a state known for low literacy figures.
Shahi sought to deflect the focus to the cut in central funds for the implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and mid-day meal schemes. He sought clarity from the Centre so that arrangements could be made to continue the two schemes in the state. "Once the central government makes the amount known, we will increase the budget through a supplementary budget," he said.
RJD president Lalu Prasad has touched off a controversy on the issue of cheating by saying that had it been his government, he would have allowed examinees to write answers from books. "Had it been my government, we would have given books to examinees to write...only those who have studied can write answers from books and those who have not will keep searching for the answers in the books for three hours," Lalu said after inaugurating a new school in an interior village of Buxar district yesterday. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav today took exception to Lalu's comment, saying it reflected the way the government was running with the help of the RJD and Congress.
Bagaha firing
The House saw an uproar over the government's failure to locate Chandreshwar Kazi, the man who went missing on June 15, 2013, in Bagaha, leading to a police firing and the death of six persons on June 24 of that year.