Telangana opposition to meet President over results fiasco

Hyderabad, May 11 (IANS) The opposition parties in Telangana on Saturday decided to meet President Ram Nath Kovind over the goof-up in the results of Intermediate examinations, which led to the suicide of at least 22 students since last month.

At a day-long protest over the issue, leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties said that they would meet the President soon and make a representation, seeking justice for the students and their families.

They alleged that the suicides by students were in fact murders by the state government.

The leaders of Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and other groups also demanded judicial probe into the goof-up by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) in the results of Intermediate examinations.

Accusing the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government of adopting anti-democratic policies, they said that such policies of the state government were leading to such incidents.

They also demanded the dismissal of state Education Minister Jagdish Reddy for the massive bungling in processing the results.

TJS leader M. Kodandaram threatened to intensify their protest if the state government failed to address the discrepancies in Intermediate examinations results.

He said their main demand was compensation for the families of the students who ended their lives.

Over nine lakh students had appeared in the Intermediate examinations for Class XI and Class XII in February-March. The results were declared on April 18. The students alleged large-scale discrepancies in the valuation of papers and processing of results. As many as 22 students committed suicide after the results were declared.

Massive protests by the students, parents and opposition parties forced the government to order free re-verification of the answer sheets of all the students who failed to obtain pass marks.