CCTVs to prevent mass copying in AP and Telangana

Hyderabad: The governments of AP and TS on Thursday informed the Hyderabad High Court that they were prepared to install CCTV cameras with recording facility in all examination halls and strongrooms to prevent mass copying in the SSC examinations scheduled to begin from Tuesday.

The CCTV cameras will be connected to a central monitoring room at the district headquarters and the state capital. The court had asked both the states to place before it the plan of action to curb mass copying in SSC and Intermediate public examinations.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with a PIL by Srinivas Guntupalli of Eluru city in AP, seeking to declare the absence of effective steps to prevent mass copying and guided copying as illegal.

Earlier, the bench asked the state governments to explore possibilities to record the holding of public examination of SSC in at least five schools in each state on an experimental basis by using tablet computers and inform it on this Thursday.

When the petition came up for hearing, counsel appearing for AP informed that cameras have already been installed in all examination centres and were connected to the office of the district education officer in each district. Counsel said that installation of cameras in strongrooms was in progress and 150 flying squads were deployed to make surprise visits and prevent mass copying.

Counsel for TS said installation of CC cameras in all public examination centres would be completed by Monday and steps were being taken on lines of AP to curb mass copying. Counsel for the petitioner urged the court to post the matter to April so as to review the results of steps taken by both the governments to curb mass copying. Adjourning the case to April, the bench told counsels of both the states to file reports after the examinations are completed.