2 suspended, 3 terminated after video shows peon evaluating students’ answersheets in MP govt college

BHOPAL: Two people — the principal and a professor of a government college in Madhya Pradesh’s Narmadapuram district — were suspended and three others were terminated from their services after a purported viral video showed a peon evaluating the answer sheets of the students, an official said.

Those terminated from the service include a guest faculty member, Khushboo Pagare, who was responsible for evaluating answer sheets; a lab technician (peon), Pannalal Patharia, who checked the copies; and Rakesh Kumar Mehar, a book lifter, who helped in the matter.

According to the information, the incident occurred in January this year, and later, a video went viral on social media, which led to the recent development of suspension and termination. The college principal, Rakesh Kumar Verma, and a professor who was the nodal officer for answer sheet evaluation, Ram Gulam Patel, were suspended on April 4, and later, three others were terminated in the matter on April 8.

A #government #College principal and a professor in #Narmadapuram, #MadhyaPradesh, have been suspended after a viral video showed a peon marking students’ answer sheets. The video sparked outrage, leading students to report the matter to their local #MLA. In response, Minister… pic.twitter.com/sLKBK1Ye5I

— ARCLANTIC (@arclanticltd) April 9, 2025

Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Higher Education Department of the MP government, Anupam Rajan, said, “Evaluation of answer sheets was going on at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College in Pipariya, Narmadapuram district and a video came to light of a class fourth employee, a lab technician, was evaluating the papers. After that, a committee of senior officers was constituted to investigate the matter. Following this, the principal of the college has been suspended for negligence, and Ram Gulam Patel, the nodal officer for the evaluation work, has also been suspended.”

He further said that three people, including the guest faculty originally responsible for evaluating copies, the lab technician, and a book lifter who helped in the matter, were terminated from their services.

“Additionally, Khushboo Pagare, the guest faculty member responsible for evaluating the copies, claimed that her health was not fine, so she was not present for the elevation work, so she was terminated from the service. The person who did the evaluation work, Pannalal Patharia, lab technician and Rakesh Mehar, who is a book lifter and helped in this matter, have also been terminated. A total of two people have been suspended and three people have been terminated from their services into the matter,” the officer said.

When asked about the re-evaluation of the checked copies, ACS Rajan said that there would be no loss to the students and earlier checked copies would be re-evaluated by competent people. He also said that negligence should not occur again in the future; otherwise, strict action will be taken.

“There will be no loss to the students and those copies which were checked before will be re-evaluated by competent people whose job is to check the copies. Also, strict action has been taken in the matter; suspension and termination orders have been uploaded on the departmental website. This kind of negligence should not happen again and if it is found anywhere, strict action will be taken,” Rajan added.

Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar said that the matter was taken seriously and that action was ensured against the people found guilty. “The department has considered the matter very seriously about examination copies given to ineligible persons for evaluation in Pipariya. We have ensured action against those who were found guilty in it, including the Principal of the College,” Minister Inder Singh Parmar said.

On the other hand, Congress spokesperson Ravi Saxena said there was chaos everywhere in the state under the current government’s rule, and they were not surprised to see such an incident, alleging that the state government has nothing to do with education.

“There is chaos spreading all around in this government, be it health, education or unemployment. Neither law and order nor other things are in place. So, if a peon is evaluating examination papers in today’s Mohan government in the state, then it is not surprising because they have nothing to do with education. There is only corruption in this government and nothing else. If we look at the education conditions in Madhya Pradesh, it has reached the 18th position. Around 60 students have dropped out of primary education in the state in the last five years. There are no basic facilities for students in 31,000 primary and secondary schools in the state,” said Congress leader Ravi Saxena.

“The government’s job is to monitor the situation all the time, what is happening in the state, but after the incident, they began eye washing. They have taken action and suspended those involved in the incident, but it will not work. These are some examples which came to light but there are millions of examples which get unnoticed. The government should pay attention to them,” he added.

The Congress leader also demanded that the state government should take strict action into the matter and make sure that such incidents should not repeat in the future. (ANI)