Marks scandal; CM orders inquiry, suspends BSE officials

Bhubaneswar, Aug 22 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the marks scandal involving the son of former School and Mass Education Minister Bishnu Das and suspended eight officials of the Board of Secondary Education(BSE).

The chief minister's action came in the wake of the inquiry report submitted by Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy into the tampering of matriculation marks of former School and Education Minister's son Bijaya Shankar Das.

The School and Mass Education Minister had already stepped down from his post following a hue and cry over the issue owning moral responsibility in the case.

On the basis of the findings of the chief secretary,the chief minister suspended BSE Secretary Minaketan Pani and Examination Controller Manmohan Swain besides six other officials who included two section officers,a senior assistant, a clerk and a peon of the BSE for their involvement in the marksheet scandal.

The chief minister also constituted a committee headed by former BSE President Dr.P C Mohapatra to review the present examination system of the board and recommend necessary reform in the examination pattern of the state government.

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