The higher education department has sought a report from Calcutta University about the actions taken against “erring officials” over the loss of answer sheets from three of its affiliated colleges.

The examiners lost the answer sheets of the Bengali postgraduate first-semester examination of 120 students in April.

A letter was sent to the university’s registrar, Debasis Das.

The letter signed by a deputy secretary of the department says: “Recently it has come to the notice of the higher education department... that reportedly 120 answer scripts of PG Examination are missing. This is a serious issue and the state government cannot ignore this in view of interests of thestudents.”

“Undersigned is directed to request you to submit a report regarding the incident that occurred and action taken by the university authority against the erring officials.”

The department has also asked the university to send an “action-taken report” detailing the steps taken by the university to protect the interest of students.

“You are further requested to submit a report of the controller of examinations in this regard,” the November 5 letter says.

The letter says if the university fails to send the report within seven days from the issuance of the communication, “action may be taken in terms of the West Bengal Universities (Control of Expenditure) Act, 1976”.

The examiners of three colleges — two in Calcutta and one in South 24-Parganas — that offer postgraduate courses allegedly lost the answer sheets of 120 students.

The results of 1,000 students are now held up following the botch-up.

An official of the higher education department said the letter was sent because the results of all the students who had sat for the tests in April had been held up because of the blunders.

“This is a serious issue and we cannot ignore it. We understand that the university has known about the goof-up since August. However, the issue was only taken up in the syndicate meeting held on October 29. Why was not there an early intervention?” the official said.

“It was embarrassing that the students are scheduled to write second-semester exams next month and are still to get their first-semester results,” said the official.

“We have received the letter from the department. The university will send its response detailing what actions have been taken in due course of time,” said registrar Debasis Das said:

In its syndicate meeting last week, the university told the colleges to initiate probes against the examiners.

The principal of the college in South 24-Parganas, who is also a syndicate member, said the college governing body had constituted a committee to probe the role of the examiner who allegedly burnt the answer sheets of 54 students. The answer scripts could not be evaluated.

The answer scripts of the remaining students got lost after the scripts had been evaluated and the marks uploaded on the portal of the university’s controller of examinations.

On Wednesday the university wrote to the colleges whose students had their Bengali postgraduate first-year answer sheets allegedly misplaced by the examiners about the options for awarding marks.

The colleges have been told to speak to the students, seeking to know whether they want to accept the highest marks they have scored on any other paper as the marks for the lost paper or if they want a retest.

The university’s syndicate in its meeting held last week discussed these options.

Vice-chancellor Santa Datta said the resolution has been finalised and the colleges have told to speak to the students.