Smooth start to SSC exams

Eluru (West Godavari): The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations which commenced all over the State on Friday went off peacefully on the first day in the four districts of West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam. In West Godavari, more than 98 per cent of students attended the examinations. Out of the total 48,553 students, 47,884 appeared for the exam, leaving 669 absentees. The district Joint Collector, Dr Baburao Naidu who made a surprise visit to the local Bhashyam school near new bus stand to monitor the conduct of examinations, claimed that foolproof arrangements were made to hold the examinations. Problem centres like Chintalapudi and Devarapalli have been identified and special vigilance teams were formed to check malpractices in the examinations. Dr Naidu said that 14 flying squads have been formed to arrest mass copying in the district. He expressed his satisfaction that there were no reports of mass copying anywhere from the district. Officials in-charge of the centres would be held accountable for the malpractices and stringent action would be taken against them, the Joint Collector warned. Section 144 has been imposed near exam centres all over the district to avoid any untoward incident. Dr Naidu said surprise checks on exam centres would be continued till the exams are complete. He asked both the invigilators and the students not to bring cell phones to exam centres and asked the officials to conduct searches before students attend the examination centres. The Joint Collector also visited the examination centre at Gundugolanu ZP High School near here. The flying squads have inspected 101 examination centres on the day, informed the DEO Narasimha Rao.