With the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations scheduled to begin from February 23, the State Government has decided to deploy armed police forces in all examination centres in the Maoist-prone districts.
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, Mass Education Director and Board of Secondary of Education (BSE) President.
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 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.
Meanwhile, out of a total of 302 nodal centres, question papers for the first three days of the examinations had been received by over 250 centres by Monday evening while the remaining centres got the papers by Tuesday evening. Official sources said there would be no change in the examination centres though several requests have been made in this regard.