Lok Sabha Question No. 540 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-06
Subject: Leakage of Question Papers
Ministry: PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
Asked by: PARVESH SAHIB SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS (DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL AND TRAINING)

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 540

(TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.02.2019)

## LEAKAGE OF QUESTION PAPERS

## 540. SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH:

Will the PRIME MINISTER be pleased to state:

- (a) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  regarding  frequent  leakages  of  question  papers  in Government recruitment exams;
- (b) the existing mechanism with the Government to prevent leakages of question papers;
- (c) the reasons for the frequent delays in exams for recruitment in Staff Selection Commission and whether the Government has taken any action to resolve the matter of cancellation and delays in exams; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) & (b):   There have been no reports of frequent leakages of question papers of the exams for recruitment of Central Govt. jobs by the concerned recruitment agencies. However, some of the steps  taken  by  the  major  recruitment  agencies  for  the  Central  Government  viz.  Union  Public Service Commission(UPSC), Railway Recruitment Boards(RRBs) and Staff Selection Commission(SSC) to safeguard the examination processes are enumerated below :-

- i) UPSC has started deploying low powered Jammers at the examination venues to prevent adoption of unfair means during the examinations by using mobiles phones, bluetooth and other communicating devices.
2. ii) Since, 2015, Computer Based Test (CBT) has been introduced in all Railway examinations. The  internet  domain,  on  which  online  CBTs  are  conducted,  has  the  approval  of  Indian Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In).  After  written  examination,  link  of question  paper  and  corresponding  responses  made  by  candidates  with  answer  key  is provided to their registered emails.
3. iii) Staff Selection Commission(SSC) migrated from erstwhile Optical Mark Recognition(OMR(-) based examination to computer based examinations from June, 2016, and  has  taken  comprehensive  measures  which,  inter-alia,  include  audit  of  examination venues, conduct of mock-tests, deployment of its representatives as Inspecting Officers at the examination  venues,  physical  frisking  of  candidates  with  the  help  of  hand-held  metal detectors, comprehensive CCTV coverage of the examination venues, biometric registration of candidates etc.

- iv) Thorough checking & frisking of candidates with the help of Hand-Held Metal Detectors, registering of their bio-metric attendance, taking and matching of their photographs, etc., are carried out at the examination centres.

(c) & (d):    Frequent delays have not been experienced in the conduct of examinations of the Staff Selection Commission(SSC). In fact, SSC has conducted 28 examinations for approx. 3.14 crore registered candidates in the Computer Based Mode between June, 2016 to July, 2018. In addition, the SSC has also conducted 18 examinations in the pen and paper mode for approx. 9.36 lakh registered candidates during the said period. All these examinations were conducted in consonance with the Annual Calendar of Examinations.

However, in 2018, there have been some delays in conduct of a  few  examinations on account of an agitation alleging malpractices in one examination and the resultant litigations.

******