Chandigarh, June 5
A large number of students who appeared in the PMT-2005 examination for admission to medical colleges in Punjab today confirmed that the question paper had been leaked several days before. This has blown the lid off a multi-crore scandal concerning admission to medical colleges, which not only includes prior sale of question papers but also impersonation during examination.
A fax received by The Tribune from Moga yesterday, as reported, contained 88 questions. Students, who appeared for the PMT today, confirmed that all questions contained in the fax were included in the paper held today.
Deeply upset over the turn of events, students said they had spent months preparing for the entrance examination and all their hard work and efforts may go waste.
The entrance examination was conducted by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, at five centres in Punjab for admission to MBBS, BDS, BAMS and BHMS courses. The centres were Amritsar, Faridkot, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala.
While the university authorities denied to comment on the alleged leak when contacted last night, senior functionaries today denied that any leak had taken place.
Today’s question paper contained 200 questions and the fax which landed at The Tribune office contained questions numbered 1-88. The possibility of the remaining questions being leaked would not be discounted.
The question paper was objective type and had to be returned to the examiners after solving it. No portion of the paper could be taken outside the examination hall. The solved papers were to be received by the university from the examination centres today itself and the result was scheduled to be declared tomorrow.
According to students and their parents who spoke to The Tribune, the
question paper had been sold from prices ranging up to Rs 10 lakh. The question paper was apparently doing the rounds several days before the examination. According to a candidate, when he had gone to a professor yesterday to get the leaked paper solved, the professor told him that students had been coming to him for the past four days for this purpose.Another candidate claimed that an agent selling prospectus in Chandigarh had offered that the question paper would be available the night before the examination. According to the candidate, the agent had offered that for a fee, interested candidates would be taken to a farmhouse, where the full question paper would be solved for them. The candidates would have to spend the night at the farm house, where all precautions had been taken and proceed to the examination centre directly from there.
Another candidate claimed that on May 31, he was approached by a doctor, who claimed that he had a “quota” of two seats in medical colleges in Punjab. For Rs 15 lakh, his seat could be secured and the candidate need not even appear in the entrance examination.
