GPS in vehicles carrying police recruitment exam papers

As the scheduled examination to recruit men and women civil constables was cancelled in the wake of the question paper leak in November, the state police department is now gearing up with technology to keep a hawk’s eye on the distribution of question papers, right from the printing press to the examination centres.

Besides, fitting the vehicles with GPS, the department will hold the exam on Sunday, January 27, across the state.

Cracking down on the network of ‘question paper leak kingpin’, Shivakumaraiah, in November, the CCB sleuths had arrested many of his accomplices.

The CCB has been touring the state and interrogating the people suspected to have links with the network.

“The incidents of question paper leak will be like a blot on the department and there will not be any scope for such incident this time. We have put in a security system that has never been taken up in the past to conduct any examination,” a senior police official revealed.

A detailed interrogation by the CCB sleuths has revealed that question paper was leaked 12 hours prior to the start of the scheduled exam from the examination centre.

Paper leak at exam centres

“Keeping this in mind, we have kept a constant vigil at the examination centres this time, besides checking the antecedents of the employees working at these centres,” the official clarified.

Helping the department officials track movement of the question paper, GPS devices will be fitted on vehicles carrying the question papers. Further, the officials’ vehicles that escort the question paper vehicle will also be fitted with GPS devices and will be tracked from the source point till it reaches the centres, according to officials.

The department has entrusted the responsibility of conducting the examination to DCPs and SPs of the jurisdictional areas and in case of any untoward incidents, these officials will be held responsible, said the Director-General and Inspector General of Police.

The notification for recruitment was issued in June 2018, and initially, exams were planned for August. However, they were rescheduled to November following the floods and landslides in Kodagu.