Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to impose National Security Act (NSA) against those involved in unfair practices in the upcoming UP Board 2023 exams for Class 10 and 12, beginning from February 16.
Moreover, FIRs will also be lodged against room invigilators and centre administrators found involved in the activities of cheating. According to the government spokesman, the chief minister has ordered the officers that static and sector magistrates should be appointed at each examination centre by the district magistrates.
Last year, the board had suffered a major embarrassment after the English language question paper of Class 12 got leaked in 24 districts. The spokesman said, "They will be required to report to the district inspector of schools along with the district magistrate after the examination is over so that daily activities can be monitored.
On the other hand, for the first time, a separate room will be made apart from the principal's room for monitoring of the exam." In addition, the copies will be kept in a double lock cupboard and a CCTV camera will be placed for its monitoring round the clock.
After the appointment of room inspectors in all districts, they will be given strict training before the exam. The sector and static magistrates, centre administrators and external centre administrators will also be trained in the district.
Yogi Adityanath has directed that a separate strong room should be made for the safety of question papers having 24-hour deployment of two armed policemen with their CCTV monitoring.
He has also called for installing voice-equipped CCTV, digital voice recorders, router device and high-speed broadband connections at examination centres.
"Strict action should be taken against anyone who is absent during this period. In such a situation, the permission of the district magistrate or the additional district magistrate will be necessary while opening the question paper," the guidelines said.
This year, a total of 58,85,745 students, including 31,16,487 for Class 10 and 27,69,258 for Class 12, have registered for high school and intermediate examinations.
UP Board secretary Divyakant Shukla said that of the total students, 32,46,780 are male and the number of female candidates is 26,38,965. These candidates will take the exam at 8,753 exam centres, including 540 government, 3,523 private and 4,690 unaided colleges, spread across the state, he said.
Also, 170 candidates are inmates lodged in different prisons who too have registered for the exams. Of them, 91 have registered to appear in Class 12 exams while 79 have enrolled for Class 10 exams.
Meanwhile, a total of 936 examination centres have been identified as sensitive while another 242 centres have been declared highly sensitive by the board.
Arrangements have also been made for live monitoring through webcasting. Besides, STF of UP Police and local intelligence unit (LIU) have also been roped in for monitoring sensitive and highly sensitive examination centres.