CS reviews arrangements for Inter exams

Vijayawada: Chief secretary K Vijayanand reviewed arrangements for the Intermediate public examinations to be held from March 1 to 20. First year exams from March 1 to 19, second year exams from March 3 to 20 will be held from 9 am to 12 pm daily.

A total of 10,58,892 students will appear for the exams in 1,535 examination centres in 26 districts. Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh Open School Society Intermediate examinations will be held from March 3 to 15, and a total of 67,00,952 students will appear for these exams in 325 centres.

Chief secretary during his review with education department officials at the Secretariat on Thursday, directed the collectors and SPs to make adequate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the respective exams as the months of March-April are examination months. Out of the 1,535 centres set up for these exams, 68 have been identified as sensitive and 36 as vulnerable centres. Vijayanand directed that strict arrangements should be made keeping in mind the incidents that had taken place there in the past.

In view of the summer, the chief secretary clarified to the collectors that appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that minimum facilities like drinking water, first aid facilities, electricity, benches are available at the respective examination centres. He said that strict action should be taken against those who spread rumours like paper leakage and false news during the examinations.

He asked the officials to impose prohibitoryorders under Section 144 within a 100-metre radius of the examination centres to ensure smooth conduct of the examinations.

Education secretary K Shashidhar said that extensive arrangements are being made for running RTC buses so that students reach the respective examination centres on time. He said that a control room with toll-free number 1800 425 1531 has been set up at the state level to receive complaints during the conduct of the examinations. Similarly, he advised the collectors to set up control rooms in the district headquarters as well.

Adult education director Kritika Shukla explained the arrangements through a PowerPoint presentation and made it clear that mobile phones and other electronic devices should not be allowed into the examination centres. She said that all the examination centres should be connected to CCTV coverage and the chief superintendent should monitor the CCTV cameras through live streaming.

Himanshu Shukla, director, state information and public relations department attended the meeting.