Aspirants to wear masks, gloves; those with fever will write paper in isolation room

Ranchi: Even though chief minister Hemant Soren urged Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to defer the NEET and JEE exams, the district administrations in Ranchi, Bokaro Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Hazaribag are preparing their respective test centres in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to hold the exams from September 1 to 13.
Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan said, “We have received an advisory from the National Testing Agency, asking us to ensure social distancing, sanitisation and crowd management protocols at all the test centres.”
As many as 25 centres in Ranchi, nine in Bokaro and two each in Dhanbad and Jamshedpur will hold the exams next month. The number of test centres in Hazaribag was not available till the time this report was filed.
According to the NTA advisory, all candidates will be thermally scanned before entering the examination hall and those with a high temperature (above 37.2 degree Celsius) will take the exam in an isolation room.
The entire examination process has been divided into three parts — pre-examination control/measures, conduct and control during examination and post examination measures.
Under the pre-examination measures, the advisory states that the placement seats must follow the social distancing norms and the staff must be trained on social distancing and sanitization norms and on inventory management.
The conduct and control measures during examination include hygiene and implementation of social distancing norms and ensuring that everyone wears a mask and gloves at the examination centres.
The post examination measures include the safe disposal of masks, gloves and other protective kits in a pedal push bin that must be placed outside the examination centres.
The advisory has also asked all the centres to avoid overcrowding at all the entry and exit points and to maintain a separate register with contact details of all the other staff, including housekeeping and security guards, in a digital format that has been provided by the NTA to all the centre superintendents.
The district authorities have asked the centre coordinators to make all the necessary arrangements as per the NTA advisory. The five district administrations are going to hold meetings in the next two days to finalise the modalities before holding the exam.
Dhanbad DC Uma Shankar Singh said, “We are going to hold a meeting with the police and the civil administration for conducting the exam smoothly.”
In Bokaro, a meeting had been convened by DC Rajesh Kumar Singh on Thursday to finalise the preparations. Chas SDO Shashi Prakash Singh, “The DC had called a meeting where we chalked out all the necessary arrangements for holding the exams.”
Meanwhile, with public transport facilities not available and hotels shut, JEE aspirant from Garhwa, Harsh Tiwary, wonders how he can make it to his test centre in Ranchi. “Even if I hire a car to go to Ranchi, I do not have a place to stay there. If the state government isn’t going to open hotels and resume transportation facilities, how are aspirants going to appear for the exam,” Harsh said.