Hyderabad, March 5 (IANS) The Intermediate Public Examinations began at 1,532 exam centres across Telangana on Wednesday.
About 10 lakh students are attending the examinations, which will continue till March 25.
Authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the examination for both first and second years.
The examination began with the second language Paper I (first year). Second language Paper II (second year) will be held on Thursday.
All the examinations will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Most of the students accompanied by their parents had reached the exam centres much before the scheduled time.
Traffic jams were seen around a few examination centres in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Following criticism of the earlier rule under which students coming late even by one minute were not allowed, the authorities gave a grace period of five minutes.
Students were allowed into the exam halls from 8.30 a.m. As per the instructions of the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE), they were required to be in their seats by 8.30 a.m.
The BIE printed hall tickets with a QR code to enable students to locate their exam centres well in advance.
The authorities also made elaborate arrangements to prevent any malpractices. The 24-page answer books are bar-coded while all the question papers feature a unique code making them foolproof from printing, distribution, and the final intended use.
The authorities installed CCTV cameras at all exam centres, which are integrated with the Command Control Room set up at the BIEs office in Hyderabad.
Officials said at least three cameras have been installed at each centre to monitor students’ entry, the places of opening the question paper packages and the corridors.
According to BIE secretary Krishna Aditya, a total of 9,96,971 students registered for first and second-year exams, both general and vocational streams. As many as 1,42,245 students are from government colleges.
The Board also constituted 124 sitting squads and 72 flying squads to monitor the exams. It also deployed 30,000 invigilators, one chief superintendent and one departmental officer for each exam centre.
Police personnel have been deployed to enforce prohibitory orders in and around the examination centres.
–IANS
ms/svn
