Cuttack: With just a day left for the commencement of annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations in Odisha, district administrations have mounted 24-hour security in all nodal centres where the questions papers have been kept.
Out of a total of 305 nodal centres set up by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), 22 are police stations in the Maoist prone districts of Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal and Gajapati.
The Board has taken special measures for the safety of the question papers in the Maoist prone districts.
"A total of 10,387 students of our district will appear in the examinations at 44 centres. We have 11 nodal centres in the district where the question papers are kept in tight security. Besides, as per the directive of the Board, prohibitory orders under Section 144 would be clamped within 100 metre radius of each examination centre,” Premananda Rout, DEO, Rayagada, told media persons.
Gouranga Charan Mishra, Additional DEO, Koraput, said the question papers have already reached all eight nodal centres in the district.
“Of the eight nodal centres in the district, three are in police stations at Bandhugan, Narayanpatna and Lamtaput as these areas are sensitive in view of the Maoist activities,” he added.
“The second phase dispatch of question papers is underway. The control room staffs will inform the DEOs of the concerned districts about the time of arrival of question papers at the nodal centres tomorrow so that the police can take charge of the security of these nodal centres from tomorrow,” Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Controller of Examinations, BSE, told OTV.
Meanwhile, the Board hled a meeting this afternoon to discuss measures to curb malpractices.
As per the decision taken at the Board meeting, there would be a three-tier squad to conduct surprise raid in all examination centres. The first-tier squad will be monitored by the district administration, the second squad (flying squad) will remain under the charge of the DEO while the special squad, formed by the Board, will have 50 members who will work in different zones of the Board in the state.
On the other hand, to help the students, guardians and teachers access any information relating to the examinations, the Board today opened a control room with two landline numbers—0671-241259/241260— at its headquarters here today.