DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Haryana Government is taking all necessary steps for free, fair, smooth and transparent conduct of Combined Eligibility Test (CET) examination for the recruitment of Group-C posts to be held on November 5and 6, 2022. These steps include setting up of examination centres for physically challenged and girls candidates in their own or adjoining districts, conducting examination in two shifts, in addition to 4 options, 5th option is added in the answer, examination in two shifts, keeping question paper in the bank as per their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Section 144 imposed around exam centres. Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal today reviewed the preparations with the District Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, General Managers of Roadways through video conferencing here today. Chairman, Haryana Staff Selection Commission Bhopal Singh, Principal Secretary, Transport Department Navdeep Virk and other senior officers were also present on the occasion. Kaushal said that about 11, 36,874 candidates have registered for this examination and centres have been set up in 17 districts of the state including Chandigarh. The examination which is conducted by the National Testing Agency will be held in two shifts morning and evening. Thus, less than 3 lakh children will appear for the exam in one shift. November 7 has been kept as a reserve day, if for some reason there is a need to re-conduct the examination, then this examination can be conducted on November 7, he added The Chief Secretary said that allotment of examination centres would be done randomly. However, this time efforts have been made to facilitate physically challenged candidates to get the examination centre in their own district so that they do not have to travel long distances and do not face any kind of inconvenience. Similarly, efforts will be made for girls to be allotted examination centres in their own or adjoining districts. The Chief Secretary said that since the examination is being conducted by NTA, they will keep the question paper in the bank as per their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). While bringing and carrying the question paper, adequate security arrangements should be ensured, he directed. A major change has been made to make the CET exam cheating free. Apart from 4 options, the 5th option has also been added to the answer of the question in the CET exam. In this 5th option, not-attempted will be mentioned. If a candidate does not fill the 4th option of answer, then he/she will have to fill 5th option. No answer can be left blank. There will be no negative marking in CET. Provided that, if a candidate does not fill in even the 5th option as required, 0.95 marks will be deducted for each question that he/she has skipped. In the previous examinations, questions were usually raised that some candidates leave the answers unattempted, in which there was a possibility of some discrepancies later. This issue has been sought by adding the mandatory filling of the 5th option. While giving directions to the Deputy Commissioners, Sh. Kaushal said that the CET exam is being conducted by NTA. But the responsibility of its successful conduct lies with the administrative officers of the state government. Therefore, all officers should discharge their duties with full devotion. He said that the consent process of the centres should be completed by October 27 and 28 in any case, so that complete arrangements can be made for the examination. Kaushal said that 100 questions will be asked in the CET examination, for which the exam time will be 100 minutes. However, additional 5 minutes will be given to the candidates to fill the 5th option. Thus the total time of the exam will be 105 minutes. (editor@dailyworld.in)