State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee sought reports from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) over the circulation of images of Madhyamik question papers online for two consecutive days.
Chatterjee also asked District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police to monitor the situation. However, he refused to term the incidents as question paper leaks as the images were circulated half an hour after the examinations started.
“It is clear that someone, after receiving the question papers, clicked photographs and shared them through WhatsApp. This happened after the commencement of the examinations and therefore it cannot be said that question papers were leaked. A leak happens when the question paper is available before the start of the examination. Therefore, we need to conduct a strict check on whether anybody is carrying mobile phones in examination centres,” he told reporters today.
The minister has also pulled up WBBSE president Kalyanmoy Ganguly over the incident and asked him to monitor the situation closely. He said some people were trying to disrupt Madhyamik exams and malign the image of the state.
“This is a deliberate attempt to malign us. We will conduct stricter checks, and if any candidate is found carrying any gadget inside the examination hall, he/she will be prevented to sit for the rest of the exams,” he said.
On Wednesday, reports surfaced in Malda of images of the English question paper being made available on the internet after the start of the exam. The previous day, question papers of the Bengali exam were circulated in a similar fashion, following which the WBBSE lodged a complaint with a cyber crime cell against unknown persons.
