Taking into account the irregularities reported at the Shiggaon examination centre of Haveri district in the Village Administrative Officer (VAO) recruitment examination recently, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) has decided to introduce several additional security measures.

A candidate in Haveri, who was flagged for poor academic record and emerging as a topper in VAO exam, has now been found to have used a mobile phone during the exam. Haveri police are probing the case now.

To prevent such instances, from now on, two invigilators will be appointed for every examination hall. One invigilator will stand at the rear of the hall to monitor candidates, while the other will remain at the front. They will also be responsible for ensuring that the mobile signal jammer in the examination centre is functioning properly.

Although candidates are required to undergo thorough frisking before entering the examination centre, it was found that this rule had not been implemented seriously.

Therefore, KEA has decided to conduct a second round of checking inside the examination hall as well.

All candidates must reach the examination centre at least 30 minutes before the examination begins. Candidates arriving at the last minute will not be permitted to enter, H. Prasanna, Executive Director, KEA said.

“Instructions have already been issued to establish district-level monitoring systems to oversee examination centres through webcasting. Going forward, KEA has also decided to appoint a separate invigilator at each examination centre to monitor CCTV footage,” he added.

Marks list published

The KEA has published a list on its website showing the marks obtained by the top 5,000 candidates in the VAO recruitment examination, along with their scores in previous recruitment examinations for Civil Police, KSRP, CAR/DAR Constable and Land Surveyor posts.

Mr. Prasanna said that the list was published as part of its efforts to ensure transparency. Cases involving significant variations in marks have been forwarded to the respective District Commissioners, requesting them to examine the CCTV footage.

The Haveri candidate in question had scored low marks in the KSRP examination, secured the first rank across Karnataka in the VAO examination, raising suspicions.

Bring documents

Mr. Prasanna appreciated those who helped expose the Shiggaon examination irregularities. He urged the public to bring any suspicions or concerns regarding future examinations to KEA’s notice through email.

He also cautioned against spreading unverified information on social media. There may be several candidates with identical names in different examinations. KEA has taken serious note of instances where marks belonging to one candidate are wrongly attributed to another, leading to unnecessary criticism on social media.