The main opposition Congress party’s youth and students’ wings have called a 12-hour shutdown in Tripura Friday to protest alleged irregularities in medical and engineering examinations in the state.

Supported by the Congress, the state Youth Congress and National Students’ Union of India Wednesday jointly gave called for the strike to protest what they called “planned and conspiratorial devaluation of merit and gross nepotism” in the Tripura Joint Entrance Board (TJEB) exam.

The TJEB examinations were held in April for selecting students for medical, engineering and other technical courses in institutions in Tripura and other states. The results were declared last month.

The Congress also demanded a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge to unearth the wrong doings in the TJEB exam.

“The irregularities in the TJEB exam were the biggest scam in education in India,” opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters.

The Agartala bench of the Gauhati High Court here Tuesday stopped the counselling of students for admission to medical courses on a plea alleging irregularities in TJEB.

The court has also seized all the answer scripts of the TJEB exam held in April for medical, engineering and other technical courses.

Justice Subhashish Talapatra of the Agartala bench of the high court also directed a scrutiny of the answer sheets by hand-writing experts following allegations of alteration of answers.

The court directions came on a plea by 11 engineering and medical courses aspirants, who appeared in the TJEB exam. They alleged modifications in their answer scripts, obtained under the Right to Information Act.

Nearly 3,000 students appeared in the exam which helps students get admission in institutions in Tripura and other states.

The case would next be heard July 20 after getting the reports of the hand-writing experts.
Tripura chief secretary Sanjoy Kumar Panda told reporters that the state government would follow the court directions in selecting the students for medical, engineering and other technical courses in institutions in and outside Tripura.