Boy scales tree next to exam hall to get paper in Hanumakonda

HYDERABAD: After a boy scaled a tree alongside the Kamalapur examination hall in Hanumakonda to access the SSC Hindi paper, he forwarded it to a WhatsApp group, before it went viral on social media in Warangal. A lab assistant with Kakatiya Medical College, Mahesh, forwarded it to G Prashanth, a former journalist, who posted it on a journalists' group.
"It then went viral and was even sent to BJP chief Bandi Sanjay," Warangal police commissioner said, adding how the viral message triggered panic among parents in Hanumakonda.
Police are yet to nab Mahesh. Officials said he is likely to be arrested on Wednesday and action will also be initiated against other officials, including examination superintendent, invigilator and police personnel on duty at the exam centre.
Education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy took to Twitter to decry the leaks and said, government would take strict action to maintain sanctity of exams. It will not allow miscreants to mar exams.
Any employee found guilty will be permanently removed from the department, she stated. She also urged officials and teachers to "keep aside their political and personal gains" and work towards ensuring smooth conduct of exams as future of 4.94 lakh students was at stake.
She also appealed to various line departments - district collectorate, TSRTC, postal, revenue and education departments and municipalities to work in tandem and ensure students are not impacted. In the evening hours, a special all district coordination meeting was held to reiterate enforcement of Section 144 around exam halls. The minister said use of mobile phones by staff will be banned at exam centres.
Despite the education minister's brave effort to downplay the incident, trouble brewed beyond Warangal. In Adilabad's Utnoor, a bundle of answer sheets went missing after the first SSC exams. The bundle belonged to nine students who appeared from their supplementary exams from centre 1063 in Utnoor, after failing the exam last year.
At Utnoor sub-post office, bundles were barcoded, put in an auto-rickshaw and sent to bus station where a TSRTC cargo bus was to pick them up and transport them to the correction centre.