Ashok Ganguly has been accused of corrupting affiliation process
NEW DELHI: The man who reformed CBSE’s examination pattern is in the dock.
Ashok Ganguly, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is facing an inquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry over a battery of charges relating to corruption, extending favours and amassing assets worth crores.
Two more officers in CBSE — controller of examination, Pavnesh Kumar, and G Balasubramaniam, former Director Academics — are also under the scanner.
Ganguly, who was pivotal in bringing the grading system in class X and XII exams besides other changes in their pattern to reduce stress among students, got an extension twice at his present post, despite the allegations.
The Union HRD minister Arjun Singh has all along defended Ganguly saying that an inquiry is on and he has no intention of removing him till he is proved guilty.
Ganguly, on his part, has strongly refuted the allegations and claims that they are a handiwork of people against whom he has taken action. “I do not even own a car in my name,” said the CBSE chairman.
“The genesis of entire complaint is initiated by two officers against whom I have taken action. This is what happens when you try to clean up the system,” Ganguly told DNA.
The HRD minister has asked a retired IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre, S Sathyam, to probe the allegations against the three. Sathyam Committee’s report is likely to be submitted by December 5.
Meanwhile, the CVC too has obtained all details from the HRD ministry in this regard.
The charges against Ganguly range from accepting Rs five lakh as money for providing affiliations to the schools and it is also alleged that during his tenure, highest number of affiliations were given. He is also under scanner for allegedly accepting favours and benefits from a publisher and amassing property worth crores including a flat in Bangalore.
Though CBSE provides affiliations to roughly 200 schools in a year, in 2006-07 about 650 schools got affiliation. Ganguly says that this increase in numbers is mainly due to the simplification of the affiliation process. “It’s a very transparent process and the numbers of applications have shot up ever since we made things online,” Ganguly defended.
