With the Maharashtra State Board’s Class 12 (HSC) examinations starting on Tuesday, the Nagpur Divisional Board has strengthened security at examination centres, custody centres and its office premises in a major move aimed at closing long-standing gaps in the examination system.
A total of 1,60,292 students are appearing for the HSC exams in the Nagpur division this year, 2,725 fewer than last year’s 1,63,017 candidates. Despite the drop in numbers, examination centres have increased from 498 to 514. The exams will continue until March 18.
Restricted Access at Board Office
For the first time, visitor access to the divisional board office has been formally restricted. Uniformed security personnel are stationed at the entrance, visitor details are recorded, and entry passes are issued. Visitors must sign in on arrival and sign out on exit, while their movement is monitored through CCTV cameras.
Officials said the access-control system, introduced last month, ends decades of unrestricted walk-ins that had made monitoring difficult during sensitive examination periods.
Aftermath of Past Scams
Although officials have not cited any specific trigger, the move comes months after the Shalarth ID scam, which had links to the divisional office. Authorities said the new system ensures better accountability and creates an audit trail of visitors during the examination season.
Security has also been intensified at custody centres, which handle the dispatch of question papers and collection of answer sheets. These centres remain under close watch following the 2019 answer-sheet manipulation racket in Nagpur, where racketeers allegedly tampered with hologram seals to replace original answer sheets with solved duplicates, using impersonation, insider help and forged signatures.
Officials said layered security, heightened vigilance and tighter supervision have been introduced this year to prevent any recurrence.
Large-Scale Logistical Exercise
Across the Nagpur division, about 3.14 lakh students are appearing for board examinations this year, including over 1.60 lakh HSC candidates.
Nagpur district has the highest number of candidates at 1,23,957, followed by Chandrapur (57,432), Gondia (38,464), Bhandara (33,373), Wardha (32,535) and Gadchiroli (28,270).
To manage the examinations, the board has set up 1,197 examination centres and 84 custody centres across the six districts. Officials said the strengthened security and monitoring measures aim to ensure the integrity of the examination process as lakhs of students across east Vidarbha take one of the most important academic tests of their lives.
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