Odisha HSC exams: Armed police to man centres in Maoist areas

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 17:

With the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations scheduled to begin from February 23, the Odisha government on Monday decided to deploy armed police force in all examination centres in the Maoist-prone districts of the state.

A decision to this effect was taken at a videoconferencing at the State Secretariat presided over by chief secretary GC Pati in the presence of Director General of Police (DGP), secretaries of School and Mass Education and Home, Development Commissioner, director, Mass Education and president of the Board of Secondary of Education (BSE).

Issues relating to security arrangements and conduct of examinations were discussed with all district collectors and SPs.

During the videoconferencing, it was decided that the collectors would form and head a special squad with magisterial powers in their respective districts.

There would be adequate security provisions in all examination centres, nodal centres and valuation centres.

The meeting decided to deploy armed police forces in all examination centres in the Maoist-prone districts and all sensitive centres identified by the BSE.

The chief secretary directed the SPs to make arrangements for 24-hour security in all nodal centres and evaluation centres.

He also asked them to make security arrangements in all examination centres where the question papers would be kept a day before the commencement of the examinations.

BSE president Dakshya Prasad Nanda apprised the officials of the steps taken by the Board for smooth conduct of the examinations.

Meanwhile, out of a total of 302 nodal centres, question papers for the first three days of the examinations have been received by over 250 nodal centres by Monday evening while the remaining centres would receive the question papers by this evening.

Official sources said there would be no change in the examination centres though several requests have been made in this regard.