ROURKELA: With the High School Certificate (HSC) examination all set to start from Wednesday, all the 20 nodal centres storing question papers have been kept under round-the-clock watch of armed police personnel in Sundargarh district.
District Education Officer (DEO) Ranjan Giri said armed personnel of Sundargarh and Rourkela police are keeping a tight vigil at the 20 nodal centres where question papers, OMR sheets and other related documents have been stored. The security arrangement would continue till the end of the examination.
All the 120 examination centres in the district would have deployment of police personnel. This apart, the administration would deploy executive magistrates at 20 sensitive centres.
The rest 100 centres would see presence of district and block level officers to ensure smooth, free and fair conduct of the examination.
Giri said on the scheduled day of examinations, sealed question papers would be dispatched from 6 am to 8.30 am to the respective centres.
To prevent malpractice, seven flying squads would randomly pay surprise visits to the examination centres.
The DEO informed that 40 examination centres including the four which will simultaneously hold State Open School Certificate (SOSC) examination, have been equipped with electronic surveillance system.
District Examination In-Charge B Sekhardeo said a total of 24,819 students including 1,087 ex-regular ones would appear the HSC examination. As many as 398 and 27 students would simultaneously take the SOSC and Madhyama examinations respectively.
Administration sources informed that necessary preventive measures have been taken to stop leak of question papers and chances of malpractice during examination. Accordingly, use of mobile phones would not be allowed inside the examination centres.
However, the centre superintendent can use mobile phones only in case of an emergency situation.