Bhubaneswar, April 23: Reform in the Plus Two examination process has left the already cash-strapped council of higher secondary education bleeding. The move has also angered the council employees.

Every year, students who register for Plus Two exams deposit Rs 150 as “examination fees” to the council. This money is used to run the organisation for a year.

The fund helps the council take care of its annual expenses that includes payment of salaries to its staff.

It also uses the money to meet exam-related expenditures that include printing and distributing question and answer papers, payment to evaluators and publications of results.

In a sudden move this year, the higher education department mooted a list of initiatives for exam reforms after last year’s Plus Two question paper incident.

The initiative included “creation of exam management hubs, installation of closed-circuit television cameras cameras and modified question papers”.

“While the cost of all these reforms is supposed to be borne by the higher education department, they used the council’s money to drain all our resources,” said Narottam Pradhan, president of the CHSE Employees’ Association.

This year, various expenses under the newly introduced measures, have been estimated to cost the council around Rs 8 crore.

Despite repeated pleas by the employees, the higher education department released only Rs 2 crore to the council to meet the expenses related to examination reforms.

The council raises nearly Rs 4 crore from the students every year. The association is on an indefinite strike demanding release of the remaining amount.

“It has been 31 years since the council was established and there are guidelines about how a certain process has to be carried out. It is strange that one fine day the department of higher education decides something and forces it on the council. This, despite the objection of the executive and finance committee of the council,” said Debaprasad Khatua, Secretary of the Association.

The member rued that introduction of the 32-page question paper instead of the 16-page used earlier has shot up the expenses from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 2 crore this year.

Similarly, increasing the evaluation fee from Rs 6 to Rs 10 will cost an additional crore to the council.

“It is unfortunate that when we don’t have the resources to pay pension and salary, the department is extracting money from us by force. This is extremely unfair,” said Pradhan.

The management of the council of higher secondary education also alleged misappropriation in procurement of the closed-circuit television cameras at very high cost and demanded a probe into the matter.