Bihar Governor Satya Pal Mallik today expressed satisfaction that B.Ed entrance examinations were held in the state without any reports of irregularities, crediting "tough steps" taken in the face of "enormous pressure" for the same.
The Governor, who is also Chancellor of the universities of Bihar, made the remarks while addressing a function here on the occasion of "World Youth Skills Day".
"We had to take some tough steps to bring an end to the trade of awarding B.Ed. degrees. People cannot imagine the enormous pressure we had to resist from those involved in the business.
A centralised, transparent system of entrance tests was brought in this year and today we had no reports of malpractices from anywhere", he said.
The Governor was referring to the combined entrance tests for B.Ed exams, which were held for the first time today, in which nearly a lakh candidates from across the state had appeared.
On May 3, the Governor had expressed concern about a racket involving colleges in Bihar, mostly owned by political leaders, which awarded fake B.Ed degrees.
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The Governor asked the Labour Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha to "do something about the mushrooming of industrial training institutes, which come under your department".
Sinha, who was present at the programme, later told reporters: "We are taking steps to remove shortcomings and our efforts are yielding positive results".
Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi spoke about the need for promoting skill development and urged youths to "aim at becoming job providers instead of job seekers".