West Bengal Implements CCTV Surveillance and Live Streaming for MBBS Exams to Ensure Transparency

KOLKATA: The West Bengal University of Health Sciences has announced that MBBS exams at various medical colleges across the state will now be conducted under CCTV surveillance, according to an official statement on Thursday. In line with new standard operating procedures (SOPs) developed by the university, following directives from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also serves as the health minister, the MBBS exams at state-run medical colleges will not only be monitored via CCTV but will also be live-streamed.
The answer sheets would have no names, but barcodes, and during the examination, students would have to sit following the odd-even roll number pattern to avoid copying.
“The CCTV footage of the entire duration of the examination for each day will have to be sent to the university in a separate folder. The footage will be stored for at least a year,” the official said.
The steps were part of junior doctors’ demand to bring back transparency in MBBS examinations.
The West Bengal chief minister had assured the agitating junior doctors to look into their demands and prepare an SOP so that strict measures could be adopted to stop any malpractices during MBBS examinations.
Junior doctors had listed 10 demands during their protest agitation following the RG Kar incident where a woman medic was allegedly raped and killed on August 9.
“This would definitely help keep an eye on the alleged practice of unqualified students getting MBBS certificates even after skipping four years of study. We are also hopeful that medical services will recover,” a junior doctor, who was part of the recently-held agitations following the death of a woman medic at RG Hospital, said.