Board fully prepared to conduct HSC examination

Bhubaneswar: The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) in Odisha, the body which conducts the matriculation examinations, has made elaborate arrangements for smooth conduct of the HSC examination commencing from Tuesday. Speaking about the arrangements made by the BSE the School and Mass Education minister Pratap Jena today said that 230 nodal centres have been set up in the state by the board for safe custody of question papers for the matriculation papers and assistance of the local police has been sought in this connection. The minister said that nodal centres have been set up even in eight police stations, one tehsil office, one block office and even one treasury office.

The matriculation regular examination was post-poned by about 20 days following theft of question papers from a high school in Kakatpur block in Puri district on March 21.

The School and Mass education minister also informed that the government had hiked the monthly allowances of cooks and assistants engaged in schools for preparation of mid-day meals. The monthly allowances of cooks and assistants have been hiked to Rs 1,000 per month and the increase in allowances would benefit over one lakh cooks and assistants in the state. The Minister said that the increase in allowances would cost the exchequer an additional amount of Rs 7 crore.