Idukki: Youth Commission Chairperson Chintha Jerome on Tuesday expressed her regret for the controversy over the error in her doctoral thesis.

Calling it an incidental error, Chintha thanked critics for pointing it out. In the thesis, she had written that 'Vazhakkula' was a poem by Vyloppilli (Sreedhara Menon) when in fact it is a well-known work of Changampuzha Krishna Pillai.

"Many academicians read the thesis. But no one noticed it. The error is incidental and will be corrected when the dissertation is published as a book. I had only taken the concept of the online essay. That will be shown as a reference. I would like to thank those who pointed out the error. But some took personal offence to it. There were also misogynistic remarks against me," Chintha said.

It is learnt that Kerala University is considering having Chintha's research paper examined by an expert committee for serious errors and plagiarism. However, there is no provision in the University Act to withdraw a PhD degree awarded or correct a mistake in a thesis.