Cuttack, March 12: Incidents of students taking answer booklets home after the High School Certificate examination has exposed the callous attitude of the officials at the examination centres.

"The district education officer has suspended some officials, including the centre superintendent invigilator and the headmaster at Nayagarh and the invigilator for dereliction of duty in Cuttack," said president of the board D.P. Nanda.

The answer booklets of both the students have been kept separately and appropriate action will be taken based on the recommendation of the examination committee.

Incidents of such lapses have been reported from two examination centres in Nayagarh and Cuttack. Sources in the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha, said two students, instead of returning the Sanskrit answer booklets, took them home.

Over six lakh students took the matriculation examination that was conducted at 2,779 centres across the state from February 23.

"It shows how the officials are discharging their duties at examination centres," said Suvendu Mallick, a guardian.

Mallick said since there was no separate question paper in the 50-mark subjective type test, students were required to write answers in the same booklet that had the questions.

"But the invigilators and officials present in the examination hall did not collect it from them," he said.

A senior board official said the students usually submitted their answer sheets to the officials at the examination hall after they finished writing the answers. "How the students could commit such a mistake will also be investigated," he said.

Though both the students returned the answer booklets to officials at the examination centres the following day, the board has decided to place the matter before the examination committee for appropriate action.

The board has decided to organise a special training programme for examiners, assistant examiners and other officials prior to the beginning of the evaluation process.

The examiners will not be allowed to use their mobile phones while evaluating the answer sheets.