The Patna and Nawada district magistrates on Friday ordered photocopy shops in the two districts to remain shut on Sunday (February 12), when the preliminary test of the state civil services examination (60th to 62nd batch) is held.

"An order has been issued to keep photostat shops located in the vicinity of examination centres on the day of examination," read a press note issued by the Patna district administration on Friday.

A total of over 2.45 lakh candidates would write the test at 390 centres set up across the state. A total of 642 government jobs are up for grabs for these aspirants of which 244 are meant for Bihar administrative centre.

Of total examination centres for the preliminary test, 36 have been set up in Patna, where 20,600 candidates would appear.

The Nawada district administration too issued a similar order. While Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Agarwal was unavailable for comment, his counterpart in Nawada, Manoj Kumar, justified the decision claiming that it had been done as a precautionary measure to prevent chances of question paper leak and their circulation. In Nawada, over 5,000 examinees would appear for the test in 10 centres.

Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has taken many preventive steps to ensure fair conduct of two-hour exam, which starts at 12noon.

"Every stage - from opening of the question paper seals to depositing of answer sheets - will be shot on video. Instructions have also been issued that except for the centre superintendent, no one, even invigilators, would be allowed to carry mobiles inside the examination centre," said a BPSC official.

He said when the answer sheets from districts arrive at the BPSC office, that process too would be videographed to rule out any possibility of tampering with the fairness of the examination process.

Bar coding

Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) will introduce bar coding of answer sheets in the Intermediate examination starting February 14.

The board had successfully tested the bar coding system in the compartmental examination of matriculation and Intermediate held in November.

Bar coding would deny examiners to have any information about the candidate whose answer sheet they evaluate. It will be done in the presence of select board officers, which includes the chief secrecy officer, deputy chief secrecy officer and secrecy officers. Only respective district magistrates, senior superintendents of police or superintendents of police may also be allowed inside. No official will not be allowed to take mobiles inside.

BSEB chairman Anand Kishor said: "Extra precaution has been taken to prevent bungling in evaluation work or tampering with answer sheets."

Kishor also interacted with all DMs and chief secrecy officers on steps through video-conferencing.