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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

TET postponed after paper leak, three held

Mumbai: In another shocker, the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) question paper has ‘leaked’ - barely 24 hours before the scheduled examination on Sunday - jeopardising the future of thousands aspiring to join the noble profession of teaching, officials said here. Reacting quickly, the Maharashtra State Council of Examination cancelled Sunday’s paper scheduled to be held simultaneously at 1,028 centres across the state and said that the new date will be announced early next week. As...

TET postponed after paper leak, three held

Mumbai: In another shocker, the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) question paper has ‘leaked’ - barely 24 hours before the scheduled examination on Sunday - jeopardising the future of thousands aspiring to join the noble profession of teaching, officials said here. Reacting quickly, the Maharashtra State Council of Examination cancelled Sunday’s paper scheduled to be held simultaneously at 1,028 centres across the state and said that the new date will be announced early next week. As many as six lakh candidates were scheduled to appear for the examination across 1,728 centres at 37 locations, officials said. The paper leak was detected and verified swiftly by Bhiwandi Police in Thane district which has arrested three alleged suspected, two from Bihar and one from Haryana, who were planning to hawk it for a staggering sum of Rs. 1.50 crore, suggesting the involvement of an inter-state gang behind the incident. Giving details, the Bhiwandi Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Dudhe said that the question paper was allegedly being ‘sold’ for a staggering Rs 1.50 crore, indicating a well-organised racket transcending the state border. He said that early on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP-II) Dr. Pawan Bansod received a confidential tip-off and he immediately alerted senior officials who launched a discreet operation to track and apprehend the culprits. “An informant tipped us that the accused were travelling from New Delhi to Mumbai carrying copies of the TET question papers. After verification, we laid a trap and arrested the three suspects in Bhiwandi. However, the kingpin/s behind the racket remain absconding,” Dudhe said. Police said that the papers were to be sold for Rs 1.50 crore for which advance was reportedly collected from some persons. The arrested accused are: Rajiv Shah, 45 and Akash Kumar, 30, both of Patna in Bihar and Dheeraj Kumar, 28, of Panipat in Haryana. Four Sets Official sources said that the police sleuths accosted the suspected trio in a local hotel room where they were staying, questioned and searched them. They recovered four sets of purported copies of the crucial TET paper from them. Upon sustained questioning they admitted that these were the copies of the TET examination question paper of June 28. Experts from the MSCE were immediately summoned to confirm the documents recovered and the officials confirmed that many of the questions apparently were similar to those in the official TET exam paper of Sunday. Armed with the information, the Kongaon Police Station in Bhiwandi initially detained the trio, filed a case and then placed them under arrest. They are slapped with charges under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita Sections 318(4), 316(5) and 61(2), besides stringent sections of the Maharashtra Examination Act, 2024, said Senior Police Inspector (HQ) Shailesh Salvi. As news of the paper leak spread like wildfire, thousands of candidates vent their ire before the mediapersons and on social media, demanding an overhaul of the public examinations monitoring systems and stringent punishment to the accused. SIT Formed The Thane Police have formed a 9-member SIT comprising Dr. Bansod, Sachin Sangle, Dr. Vinay Marathe and other officers, to investigate the source of the leak, identify the masterminds, and determine whether the network was linked with similar examination scams across the country. The TET paper leak comes days after the nationwide furore over the NEET 2026 exam paper leak with questions raised on the country’s public examinations system amid claims and assurances of tight security and monitoring. Congress, CJP flay govt Maharashtra Congress President Harshwardhan Sapkal and Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke pounced on the state government, accusing it of failing to safeguard the future of thousands of deserving candidates. They demanded a thorough probe and stringent action against everyone involved, lamenting how a series of examination scandals have damaged the credibility of the state’s education and public exams systems. “The government is not bothered. They are busy with breaking political parties. The so-called double-engine regime is to be blamed for the ‘double-leaks’ in such a short time. The education minister must resign,” demanded Dipke. The examination system has come under a cloud with several entrance and recruitment exams, including the NEET, UGC-NET, the Maharashtra TET and others cancelled or being probed in the past three years, triggering huge public outrage and raising question marks on the careers of lakhs of candidates.

Strategies for Prevention of Violence in Healthcare

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Strategies for Prevention of Violence in Healthcare

Reports of physical and verbal violence at healthcare institutes are regularly reported across India. In some instances, mobs have resorted to arson, destroying costly equipment. An Indian Medical Association (IMA) study found that over 75% of doctors have faced workplace violence. The ghastly rape and murder of a resident doctor at Kolkatta’s R.G. Kar hospital stands out as one of the most gruesome of these.

Despite the Union Health Minister’s promise of a central act to prevent such violence, no legislation has been enacted.

Violence against doctors is not exclusive to India. In the US, Dr. Michael Davidson, director of endovascular cardiac surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was killed by Stephen Pasceri, who blamed Dr. Davidson for his mother’s death. Similarly, violence against nurses in the US is commonplace. According to a study, nearly a million attacks, some extremely violent, against healthcare institutes are reported in China annually.

To prevent such violence, almost 29 states in India, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, and Delhi, have enacted legal provisions in the last few years. As per this Act, violence means activities causing any harm, injury, or endangering the life or intimidation, obstruction, or hindrance to any healthcare service person in the discharge of duty in the healthcare service institution or damage or loss to property in the healthcare service institution. The healthcare service persons include registered medical practitioners working in healthcare institutions (including those having provisional registration), registered nurses, medical students, nursing students, and para-medical workers employed and working in medical service institutions. The Act provides stringent punishment, including imprisonment and a fine, as well as double the amount of damage as compensation to the institute. These stringent legal provisions do not permit bail for the accused. The Act also allows patients to lodge criminal complaints against doctors if they feel aggrieved. The Acts have not effectively deterred attackers, with few convictions reported.

Dr. Neeraj Nagpal, Medico-Legal Action Group, argues that a central act alone will not suffice. He suggests changes in the Indian Penal Code. In his opinion, the arrest of doctors under Section 304A of The IPC is a part of the problem of violence against doctors because invariably cross-FIRs are registered by the patient party and the doctor, which results in an inevitable compromise.

In public general hospitals, violence is usually targeted against young resident doctors. Analysis shows that incidents often happen during emergencies when senior doctors are absent and medical equipment is unavailable or not working. In a few incidents, resident doctors were reported to be under the influence of alcohol and allegedly misbehaved with their relatives.

Given these repeated violent incidents, I was tasked with devising a scheme for medical colleges-cum-hospitals run by the State Government of Maharashtra and Mumbai Corporation. With the medical superintendents, we noticed that trouble ignites in the emergency departments, or if a patient dies. Our resolution involved deploying armed contingents from the Maharashtra Security Force (MSF), equipping them with training and communication tools, and installing CCTV cameras, and restricting access. These measures have improved safety and a better focus on treatment for resident doctors.

These measures are just the beginning of a comprehensive approach. In part 2, we will explore additional solutions, including advanced security protocols, the role of training, and innovative practices to protect healthcare professionals and institutions further.


(The writer is a former DGP of Maharashtra. Views personal)

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