It seems the government has created a situation where it cannot follow the rules it made. The government has mandated that all pre-university examination centres should have closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. But 14 of the 33 examination centres in the district do not have them. They include 12 government colleges. PU examinations start on March 9.
After the repeated leakages of pre-university examination question papers last year, the government opted for the cluster system of deputing candidates to examination centres. The reform measures also included electronic monitoring of examinations by CCTV cameras. While most private colleges have these facilities, government colleges don’t.
Most government colleges do n0t have basic facilities such as electricity connection, computers or generators. This is not just with older buildings. Even the recently built government PU college for girls in Bidar old city does not have a power connection.
“Some senior officers come up with such ideas sitting in Bengaluru. They have no understanding of the difficulties on the ground,” said a senior officer involved in the preparations for the examinations. “With what moral authority can we enforce a rule that all examination centres should have CCTV cameras, while colleges run by the government don’t have them in the first place?,” he questioned.
Government college principals say they neither had the time or money to fix the cameras. “Since we received the order, we have begun to worry,’’ said a principal. Raising funds or spending money in government colleges is bound by rules. “The State government gave us only orders. No money. We are prohibited from raising resources locally. What is more, there is not enough time for calling tenders,” he said.
R. Selva Mani, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive officer, says he is aware of the issue. “We are planning to take some CCTV cameras on hire,’’ he said. “We will record the examinations, store them in hard drives and return the cameras after the examinations. We will also explore options like video recording after consulting with the Deputy Commissioner and other officials,” he added.
