Imphal, September 11: A seemingly simple but crucial mistake committed by the authorities which conducted the Manipur MBBS/ BDS Entrance Examination 2004 has cost at least four candidates dearly.

The four students, two from scheduled tribes and one each from scheduled caste and general categories, were declared selected for getting admission on June 4, a day after the examination, but are now denied admission as the selection board had revised the merit list after at least eight �mistakes� committed by the question setters or moderators were detected, after more than a month of declaration of results.

The examination, it may be recalled, was held on June 3, 2004.Informed sources said that matter came to a head when three candidates who were not selected filed petitions challenging the validity of the answer keys provided for as many as 16 questions after the Department of Health announced the answer keys of the same examination on June 17, in compliance with the directive from the Guwahati High Court.

When rechecking of all the answer sheets of the candidates was conducted, it was found that the answer keys to four questions were indeed wrong and the nature of keys provided for another four were found �controversial�.

Then the selection board decided to rearrange the merit list on the basis of corrections made, which resulted in the dropping of the four ill-fated students.

It, however, remained unexplained how such grave mistakes were committed in the first place and the matter dealt with so casually given the sensitive nature of such a prestigious examination.

Whether those who committed the mistakes were penalized for the same or not are also not known.

One August 1, 2004 a memorandum issued by Ch Chandramani, Director of Health Services, on the case reached the parents of the affected students.

The memorandum asked the dropped students to show cause as to why their position in the recommended select list should not be changed and asked them to submit replies on or before August 3.The parents said that they were completely taken by surprise and are still deliberating on what to do.

A father of one of the dropped students here expressed regret that their children were made to lose at least one academic year, apart from other mental and physical trauma, due to the negligence of the authorities.

"We were just waiting for the admission and no longer bothered to look for other avenues until this shocking news came.

Many people had actually come to congratulate us with presents and some relatives and friends had even called him for feasts in appreciation.

Our son is so depressed and ashamed that we are forced to send him to Delhi as there is nothing to do here anyway", he said.

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