Nagpur: With the Maharashtra State Board’s Class 12 (HSC) examinations having begun on Tuesday, the Nagpur Divisional Board has significantly tightened security across examination centres, custody centres and its own office premises, a first-of-its-kind move aimed at plugging long-identified vulnerabilities in the examination system.
A total of 1,60,292 students are appearing for the HSC examinations under the Nagpur division this year, 2,725 fewer than last year’s figure of 1,63,017. Despite the drop in candidate numbers, the number of examination centres has increased from 498 last year to 514 this year. The examinations will continue till March 18.
Gold Rate
Feb 10th, 2026 - Time 11.45Hrs
Restricted access at Divisional Board office
For the first time in its history, the Nagpur Divisional Board has formally restricted visitor access to its office. Uniformed security personnel have been deployed at the entrance, where details of every visitor are recorded and visitor passes issued. Visitors are required to sign in on arrival and sign out on exit, while their movement is monitored through CCTV cameras.
The access control system, introduced last month, has ended decades of unrestricted walk-ins into the board office, an arrangement officials acknowledged had made monitoring difficult, particularly during sensitive examination periods.
Aftermath of past scams
While officials have not cited a specific trigger for the tightened security, the move comes months after the Shalarth ID scam, the trail of which had also reached the Nagpur Divisional Board office. Officials said the new system ensures greater accountability and creates an audit trail of all visitors during the examination season.
Security has also been enhanced at custody centres, which serve as critical nodes for dispatching question papers to examination centres and receiving answer sheets after each paper.
These centres are under particular scrutiny as Nagpur was the epicentre of a major board exam answer-sheet manipulation racket in 2019. Investigations at the time revealed that racketeers used sophisticated methods, such as heating hologram stickers with high-wattage bulbs to remove and reattach them, allowing original answer sheets to be replaced with solved duplicates. Cases of impersonation, insider assistance and forged invigilator signatures had exposed custody centres as a major weak link in the system.
Officials said layered security, heightened vigilance and tighter supervision have been put in place this year to ensure such breaches are not repeated.
Massive logistical exercise
The scale of the examinations highlights the logistical challenge faced by the board. Across the Nagpur division, 3.14 lakh students are appearing for board examinations this year, including over 1.60 lakh HSC candidates.
Nagpur district accounts for the highest number, with 1,23,957 students from urban and rural areas combined. Chandrapur follows with 57,432 candidates, Gondia (38,464), Bhandara (33,373), Wardha (32,535) and Gadchiroli (28,270).
To manage the process, the board has set up 1,197 examination centres and 84 custody centres across the six districts. Officials said the combination of controlled access, strengthened security and enhanced monitoring is aimed at restoring confidence in the integrity of the examination process as lakhs of students across east Vidarbha undertake one of the most crucial academic milestones of their lives.
