Students and their parents stage protest as police personnel stand outside office of the Council of Higher Secondary Education in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, June 2: Police had to resort to “mild lathi charge” today to disperse parents and students who were protesting against “faulty” evaluation system of Plus Two answer sheets outside the Council of Higher Secondary Education office.

About 1,000 people gathered outside the council office demanding immediate re-evaluation of the answer sheets and did not allow the chairman and other employees of the council to move out of the office for nearly six hours.

Although the police denied that it had lathi charged the mob, the demonstrators claimed that the police did use force to disperse the crowd. The demonstrators, too, had allegedly pelted stones at the building.

The mob squatted on the road obstructing the passage of the council chairman who was leaving the office with police protection. Five platoons of police were deployed in the area. The board officials alleged that the students tore and burnt nearly 300 certificates which were to be issued to the students of the Tulasi Womens’ college in Kendrapara.

Bibhudatta Sahoo, a student from Cuttack who was injured in the incident, said: “I was protesting peacefully in front of the office. All of a sudden, a few policemen argued with me and started assaulting me. They kept me hostage inside the office for around half an hour.” He was later taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Students alleged that despite having secured first division, they had received single digit marks in some subjects. “Erroneous evaluation” was reported in subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics.

“I have scored 80 marks in physics, but 21 marks in chemistry and only seven in mathematics. They have ruined my career,” said Manoj Barik, a student. “It is admission time and many entrance examinations are going on. Why will any institute wait till my son’s mark-sheet is revised? The board’s careless approach has spoilt our child’s future,” said Bilasini Jena, a parent.

Parents blamed the goof up on the board for its hurry to publish the results in “record time” . The board only focused on prevention of leakage of question papers and neglected the importance of error-free evaluation, said another guardian of a Plus Two student.

There were also complaints regarding the hike in re-addition (of marks) fee. The fee has been hiked from Rs 100 to Rs 300. Similarly, the cost for a photocopy of answer-sheet has been increased from Rs 100 to Rs 600.

Higher education minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi said he had already sought a report from the council and also directed it to set up a helpline to deal with the complaints.

Council chairman Basudev Chhatoi said: “We are sensitive towards the career of our students. However, the number of such cases is very few. However, we will re-evaluate the papers and try to announce the revised marks as soon as possible.”