Berhampur: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) authorities have turned police stations in Maoist-affected southern Odisha districts into nodal centres to store question papers for the matriculation examinations beginning tomorrow.
The annual examination will continue till March 11.
All 10 nodal centres in Malkangiri are going to be in police stations, while eight of the 16 centres in Kandhamal are also going to be set up in police stations.
Similarly, three of the eight and three of the 11 nodal centres in Koraput and Rayagada districts respectively would be set up in police stations, sources said.
The number of nodal centres in Ganjam is 16, while there are four in Gajapati, nine in Nabarangpur and three in Boudh, sources said.
"The question papers will be kept in police stations for safety reasons. The papers will be dispatched to the examination centres with police escorts from the police stations," said Sashi Bhushan Tripathy, deputy director of BSE's regional office, Berhampur.
Forces will also be deployed at other nodal centres.
"At least four police personnel, including one officer will be engaged at each nodal centre to guard the question papers in our district," said SP (Kandhamal) K V Singh.
The BSE has taken these safety measures at nodal centres from last year after the alleged theft of question papers from a nodal centre in Puri in 2012.