Generators made available to 231 SSC exam centres: HC told

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education today told the Bombay High Court that the state government had provided power generators/inverters in all the 231 centres to cope with load shedding for SSC (10th) examinations commencing March 3 across the state.
This was in keeping with a High Court directive to the state government, the Board informed a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka, which was hearing a contempt petition filed by activist Vishnu Gavali.
The Board further informed that officers of Education department had recently visited all the examination centres and verified whether power generators/inverters had been made available as per the directions of the high court.

The bench posted the matter to September 30 in view of the October 2015 examinations.
The HC had obtained an undertaking from the government earlier that it would provide generators/inverters in all the examination centres, after it was told that 18 centres were not given such power equipment during the recently-concluded HSC (12th) examinations.
The HC had warned of contempt action if the equipment was not provided in all the examination centres.

Gavali's petition alleges that the government has not implemented the earlier orders. In July, the High Court had asked the state to provide generators, inverters and solar systems on a war-footing to schools as HSC/SSC candidates sometimes have to write in darkness, with ceiling fans not operating due to power cuts.

Gavali said that he had written a letter to the HC in 2008 on the issue, which was converted into a PIL.
On February 27, 2009, the high court had directed the government to ensure supply of around 40,000 generators to schools conducting the examinations. In addition, the court had asked Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) to ensure that there is no load shedding at the time of examinations.