Police lathicharge protesters in front of Board of Secondary Education Office in Cuttack and (above) a youth being carried for medical assistance after getting injured in the clash. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 2: Tension prevailed at Board of Secondary Education office here today following a tussle between police and All-India Democratic Students’ Organisation members when they were demonstrating against the alleged faulty evaluation of matriculation papers.

At least five police personnel and three protesters were hurt in the clash that occurred around 10am. Police allegedly resorted to baton-charge when the protesters tried to storm into the board’s office. The police denied having used batons and said the protesters pelted stones at them. Though the cops were initially successful in dispersing the agitators from the spot, the situation worsened after the activists allegedly pelted stones at the cops.

The students’ organisation however, denied the charges and has condemned alleged brutality by the cops claiming that few local youths and goons started the problems.

“We were protesting peacefully when the cops attacked us,” said Tarunsen Nayak, an injured protester.

Earlier, a large number of students and their guardians across the state were angered when many students found discrepancy in their marks in third language Hindi and Sanskrit (objective-type, 50 marks), which came to notice after the results were published on Wednesday. Terming it as an “error in the computer system” in reading the scores in the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets, board officials said steps had been taken to rectify the mistakes.

A senior official requesting anonymity said that error in evaluation was mainly due to error in computer evaluation of multiple-choice objective OMR sheets. These sheets were introduced for the first time in the matriculation examination this year.

“Our priority is now to ensure that the results of students, particularly in the third language subject, are rectified. The revised results would be uploaded on the website by today evening,” said board president Dakhya Prasad Nanda. He said apart from the third language subjects, the board has also received complaints regarding abnormal marking in other subjects. A helpline desk would start functioning from 10am tomorrow where the students can lodge any complaint till 5pm on all working days.

All the complaints will be verified and revised results will again be published in the next seven days. Besides, the board has also decided to conduct a detailed analysis of the results. No fee would be charged from students seeking re-evaluation. A notification to this effect will soon be published in various newspapers, Nanda said. Many students and their guardians, who had come to the board office to inquire about wrong evaluation and other information regarding revaluation period, had to return home following the clash today.