NEW DELHI, May 31 (H.S.): Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh has once again questioned the Central Government’s handling of the controversy surrounding the evaluation and digitisation of CBSE Class 12 answer sheets, alleging that the matter involves a large-scale data breach affecting millions of students.

In a post on social media platform X, Ramesh described the incident as a “massive data leak” that has allegedly placed the privacy of nearly two million students at serious risk.

He said the episode had once again exposed the alleged incompetence and insensitivity of Compt, the company entrusted with the digitisation process. According to Ramesh, Compt was awarded the contract only after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) modified the technical requirements in the Request for Proposal (RFP), a move that he claimed may have benefited the company.

Ramesh also raised concerns over visible fold marks and shadow-like impressions appearing on the digitised answer sheets. He argued that such marks are generally associated with scans captured using mobile phones rather than those produced through professional scanning equipment.

Referring to the procurement process, he noted that the mandatory requirement for robotic scanners had reportedly been removed in the third RFP. In light of this change, he questioned the type of scanning technology and equipment allegedly used by the company for digitising the answer scripts.

The Congress leader described the entire episode as a reflection of negligence towards the education system and the security of students’ personal information. He demanded an explanation from the Central Government and called for accountability from both the companies involved and the officials responsible.

Ramesh asserted that any leak of sensitive student data is a matter of grave concern and emphasized that responsibility must be fixed for any lapses that may have compromised the privacy and security of millions of students.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar