When Cash Is No Substitute!

New Delhi, June 11 (UNI) Results of 966 students who allegedly used unfair means-- such as attaching currency notes to exam answer sheets-- have been cancelled, Indira Gandhi National Open University has announced.

They include students from India as well as abroad, a statement by IGNOU's Student Registration and Evaluation Division Registrar Srikant Mohapatra said over the weekend.

The 966 of about 300,000 students who took the term-end exams in December 2006 and were heard by the authorities have been debarred from taking such exams for one to three years, the statement said.

In majority cases, the students were stated to have used ''incriminating materials,'' or some ''appealed'' to evaluators to give them pass marks and enclosed currency notes.

''These included notes for Rs 1,000, Rs 500, Rs 100 and also Rs 10, totalling about Rs 10,000, and have been deposited into the University account,'' Dr Mohapatra told UNI.

An unspecified number of students who ''forcefully'' took away answer books and threatened staff were debarred for two years, the statement said.

Students who indulged in impersonation have been debarred from exams for three years and police cases lodged, it added.

The university is placing the names of all such students and punishment awarded to them on the IGNOU website-- as a lesson.

UNI