Nagpur: 
Taking a strong stand against the officials absenting from the work during winter examinations 2016, the Nagpur University has issued show cause notices to 73 co-officers. Sources informed that of the 73, 27 of them have already replied while the remaining would be issued a second notice. Controller of examination Neeraj Khaty informed that he would be screening the replies to assess if they stayed away for a valid reason. If the reply if found unsatisfactory, we would be forwarding the list of such names to the Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC). As natural justice process, we would serve a second notice to those who have not replied so far. Even the DAC would be giving them enough opportunity to put up their case.
He added that pregnancy, having small kids and other medical conditions would be accepted as valid reasons for not reporting to the exam centres.
When asked if centres where co-officers remained absent went unmonitored, Khaty said the varsity had asked senior faculty members from nearby colleges of such centres to take care of the process for a week. “Several steps need to be followed to assign substitute co-officers beside taking approvals,” he said.
Co-officers are college teachers who are assigned different exam centres. They need to assist the chief supervisor at the centres during examination. If they find anything amiss or any malpractice during the examination they bring it to the notice of the CoE. They work as university’s represenatitives and ensure that exam are being conducted as per the manual.
The winter examinations started in phases from October 19 at 186 centres. Co-officers, especially women teachers, are reluctant to visit the centres as they are assigned different city or village.
However, this year the exam section has adopted a strict approach for exam related duties. In September, it had issued show cause notices to around 120 science college teachers over delay in bachelor of science results. Around 100 teachers had responded to the notices but only 70 were found to be satisfactory. In their replies, some teachers had cited medical grounds such as pregnancy or health issues which was accepted by the exam section.
