BERHAMPUR: BJD MLA from Surada Purna Chandra Swain was among 1,129 students who appeared on the offline High School Certificate (HSC) examination in the Ganjam district on Friday.
The offline Matriculation Examination began across the State for the students dissatisfied over marks awarded by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) after the cancellation of the annual examination due to the second wave of the Covid pandemic.
More than 15,000 candidates are appearing in the offline examination at 504 centres.
The three-time legislator from Surada Assembly Constituency appeared the examination at Surada Girls’ High School. Swain was recently in news for arranging a feast in his village Amurutulu by violating Covid norms.
Born in 1972, Swain has been representing the Surada Assembly segment since 2009.
While a total of 1,129 students, including 708 regular students, are appearing for the exam at 29 examination centres in Ganjam in adherence to COVID-19 guidelines, around 196 students are writing the test in three centres at Berhampur.
Though Swain had tried to clear the examination several times in the past, he was unsuccessful for various reasons.
The ruling party MLA was seen adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines while entering the examination centre with his admit card. A sitting arrangement was made separately for him as he was stated to be sick.
The Covid test of all the teachers and staff involved in the examinations have been done 48 hours before the examination began. Apart from thermal screening of all candidates, wearing of masks, hand sanitisation and social distancing were strictly followed at all examination centres.
The offline HSC examination will continue till August 5.