IANS
 
New Delhi, Jun 7: The names of three young MPs figure in the list of students who passed this year's Uttar Pradesh Class 10 examination, it has been revealed in a TV sting operation conducted to expose corruption in the state education board.

They are Lok Sabha MPs Milind Deora and Naveen Jindal and Rajya Sabha MP B J Panda - all of whom actually completed their education several years ago, said STAR News. The channel clarified that "the honourable MPs had nothing to do with the operation except that their identities were used.

"Their candidature was pushed into the system to expose the level of corruption in the Uttar Pradesh Education Board," said STAR News, which conducted the sting along with investigative portal Cobrapost.

The TV channel claimed that the sting exposes the connivance of school officials, board invigilators and board officials.

In the exposé, "Star News and Cobrapost show just how the copy-mafia operates in Uttar Pradesh. All three MPs were registered as genuine students for this exam. School officials of local schools were only too keen to register these 'MPs' as regular students of their school in exchange for money. The necessary documentation to prove that they had studied in the school was comfortably 'forged'," said the TV channel.

"During our investigation these officials readily admitted to filling out numerous such forms illegally every year. A district school invigilator also accepted money on the promise that he wouldn't conduct surprise checks while the exams were being held.

"A board official posted in Meerut readily accepted money, promising to improve their marks if they did not get enough to pass the exams," said STAR News. When the exams drew near, the greedy school officials changed the photographs on the hall tickets and sent dummy candidates to write the Class 10 exam.

"Thus the three MPs, who had nothing to do with the Uttar Pradesh school board, managed to clear these exams without applying or appearing for these examinations," said the Star News/Cobrapost team.

Their names were used to demonstrate just how deep the rot in the school board exams is and how easily officials connected with the High School and Intermediate Board can destroy the sanctity of examinations.