'Guilty officials will be punished'

G Thiruvasagam, vice-chancellor of the University of Madras was in Delhi on a University Grants Commission (UGC) assignment when TOI broke the story of the exit of university registrar (in charge) T Leo Alexander in connection with the BE/BTech exam scandal last Friday. In an interview to Arun Janardhanan, he speaks about the irregularities, investigations and the future course.
What have you done regarding the exam scandal? I have taken steps to investigate the complaints in October 2011, after I got a tip-off.I reported the matter to the syndicate and appointed a committee headed by senior professor S Karunanidhi. After the committee submitted a report in December 2011, we appointed another committee headed by K Subburaj, a senior syndicate member. The syndicate accepted his report on May 31 and chargesheeted 30 officials. Also, we have appointed a one-man committee by K Aludiapillai, a retired IAS officer, to conduct oral inquiries with the accused. We are now awaiting the final report... What were the major irregularities? The allegations include introduction answer scripts of students who did not attend the exams, corrections on mark cards and tampering of records.
Leo Alexander continues to be the controller of exams. Is it proper to allow the accused officials to continue in key posts? We have given chargesheets based on the two reports. Only the final report will find the real culprits. It will be improper if we name a few as bad before the internal inquiry gets over. Chargesheeted officials will reply within a week.
Why did this scam happen? Are touts working with the university staff at the controller of examination office? We cannot say a department is responsible for the scandal. If there are bad elements operating on the campus, we will take severe action against them. The VC's office runs in the most transparent way, allowing anyone to file a complaint.