A little over 1.24 lakh candidates will write the Bengal joint entrance examinations (JEE) for admission to engineering, technology, pharmacy and architecture courses on Sunday.
The examination for paper-I (mathematics) and paper II (physics and chemistry) will be held on the same day.
Paper-I carrying 75 questions will be held in the first half from 11am to 1pm. Paper-2 with 80 questions will be held in the second half from 2pm to 4pm.
Malayendu Saha, the chairman of the JEE board said, this year the invigilators would be provided with hand-held metal detectors in all 306 centres to strengthen surveillance.
“Our 84 roaming observers will be visiting the centres with radio frequency detectors (a scanner fitted with a sensor and a camera that can sense the presence of a cellphone or similar electronic devices if brought close to a person’s body). But they cannot be expected to guard a centre for the entire duration of the examination,” said Saha.
“Therefore, the invigilators have been asked to use the hand-held metal detectors.”
Of the 306 centres, 303 centres are in Bengal. Of the remaining, two are in Tripura) and one in Assam.
Since the number of candidates (1,24,919) has increased by over 24,000 compared to last year, the count of examination centres has increased as well.
Last year, the count stood at 277.
Candidates will be frisked with metal detectors before entering the centres.
The board president said the question papers and answer sheets would have certain embedded features to prevent any impersonation.
He, however, did not give any details of those features. The board has asked the candidates not to come with wrist-watch and pens.
“The board will provide pens to the examinees. Wall clocks will be installed in all the centres,” said a board official. Saha said the dates of publication of results would be notified later.
The board this year has come up with an app to connect all centres where the test will be held on Sunday to monitor the movement of confidential documents, said a board official.
“It will enable us to get real-time information and take decisions accordingly.” The examination will be held through optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in offline mode.
Last year, the number of candidates coming from outside Bengal to write the tests stood at 32,000.
“The number has gone up this year from last year. Which is why the Eastern and South Eastern rail will run special trains on Sunday,” said a JEE board official.
