President Ramnath Kovind seeks report on suicides by Telangana students

President Ram Nath Kovind has sought a report from the Telangana government on the suicides by 27 students over the alleged goof-up in the results of Intermediate examinations.

Union Home Ministry sent a letter to Telangana Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, directing him to furnish a report.

Ashok Kumar Pal, Under Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs along with his letter dated Aug 7 forwarded a letter received from President's Secretariat.

The central official also marked a copy of his letter to BJP Telangana state unit President K. Laxman, who along with other party leaders had submitted a memorandum to Kovind last month, urging him to seek a report from the Telangana government.

The BJP delegation had also appealed to the President to examine the possibility of advising the Governor to order judicial probe into the bungling by the education authorities.

It alleged that the students ended their lives due to the bungling by the Board of Intermediate Education in the results of intermediate (Classes 11 and 12) examinations.

Of the 9.43 lakh students who appeared in the exams, 5.6 lakh had cleared it. After the announcement of results in April, goof-up by the authorities in evaluation of answer scripts and processing the results came to light, triggering a huge public outcry and massive protests by opposition parties and student bodies.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao later announced free re-verification of answer sheets of all the failed students.

In May, the BIE announced results of re-verification of answer scripts of over 3.82 lakh students who had failed to obtain pass marks. Following this process, 1,137 students, who were earlier declared "failed", cleared the exams.

According to the BIE, of the 23 students who committed suicide and three who attempted, re-verification of their answer scripts showed that there is no change from fail to pass.

The student bodies and NGOs claimed that 26 students had ended their lives. The BJP, however, put the number at 27.