Gujarat Lokayukta is keen to recommend stringent steps to curb the menace of question paper leaks. The association has suggested printing question papers for recruitment exams conducted by the state Subordinate Service Selection Board only at the government-owned printing centres.
Gujarat Lokayukta believes doing so will monitor the processes and prevent rampant leaks in the system.
In March last year, 9.5 lakh candidates in Gujarat were preparing for a panchayat junior clerk exam. According to a report in The Print, they were battling it out for 1,181 seats. The job promised a salary of Rs 19,950. Around 7 am, the candidates were informed that the paper had to be cancelled as it was leaked.
The Gujarat Lokayukta has also suggested that only restricted people, such as the selection board chairman should know the exact questions to be included in the paper.
The ‘Twenty Third Annual Consolidated Report of Lokayukta of Gujarat’, tabled in the state assembly during the ongoing budget session, made these observations.
The association also recommended the paper-setting procedure that the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) or the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) follows.
“To make the system transparent and accountable and to avoid any such incident in future, it is desirable if the government, at the appropriate level, makes necessary modification in the procedure so that responsibility can be fixed and cross-examination can be done,” part of a report prepared by Lokayukta Justice Rajesh Shukla (retired) read.
“Even if the present system is continued, some changes in the procedure are required to maintain secrecy. When the paper goes into printing, persons involved in the printing or the owner of the press should also follow certain norms.”
