Efforts on to curtail cheating in Nuh, the hotbed

The first two days of cheating made the state government sit up and launch a crackdown. It’s been an unusual examination season in Nuh since — barbed wires around the roof, cops surrounding the exam centres and official cars with sirens patrolling through the day.

What once used to be a paper leak festival, with people scaling walls, throwing chits and announcement of answers from local mosques, today seems like a curfew day. The local administration, in collaboration with the police, is out on the streets to curtail cheating.

One of the most backward districts of the country, Nuh in Mewat region struggles with educational infrastructure and performance, but generally tops Haryana in cheating.

The region is home to notorious cheating gangs, which are generally contracted to make all school students of villages pass with innovative techniques. The usual modus operandi is mass cheating. The gangs take contracts ranging between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh depending on the exam and security of the centre. Even local schools struggling to get good results contact them.

The plan failed to work this year as the Nuh anti-cheating team led by DC Vishram Kumar Meena himself nabbed 34 such imposters. Majority of these fake candidates were appearing for others in a single centre during the open school examination. “Things went haywire on the first two days but since then, the situation has improved. We have changed the strategy now. Broken windows at centres have been repaired overnight. The dubious staff have been suspended or relieved of duties,” he says.

“Panchayats and Nambardars are being made accountable and heavy police deployment is seen at all vulnerable centres,” adds Meena.

The locals, however, blame the indifference to the crumbling education infrastructure as the key reason for rampant cheating. “Teachers are unavailable for the entire year, there are no proper classes. So what do we do? Let our children fail? The government should review the entire educational infrastructure here,” says a panchayat member of Punhana.