Orissa School and Mass Education Minister resigns

Bhubaneswar, Aug 16 (UNI) Orissa School and Mass Education Minister Vishnu Char Das today resigned from the Council of Ministry following mounting pressure from the Opposition for his alleged involvement in the "tampering" of mark of his son in the High School Certificate examination.

Chief Minister Naven Patnaik told newsmen at the state secretariat that Mr Das had tendered his resignation on moral ground and he had accepted it.

The resignation letter, the Chief Minister said, had been forwarded to Governor Rameswar Thakur.

Ever since the "tampering" of marksheet of his son appeared in the newspaper, the Minister has been maintaining that he had no role in the incident and clarified that he had rather informed the Secondary Education Board to recheck the marks of his son as he felt his son had secured more marks than he deserved in some papers.

The Chief Minister had even ordered an inquiry into the incident by State Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy, who had visited the Board office at Cuttack and conducted an on the spot probe into the mark tampering allegation.

The issue snowballed into a major controversy and the Opposition political parties accused the Chief Minister of protecting the Minister. They demanded that the Minister should have been dismissed and a criminal proceeding be initiated against him for his alleged role in the manipulation of the marksheet of his son.

Yesterday, students from various colleges took to the street and burnt the effigy of Mr Das demanding his resignation.

UNI