CBSE Clarifies Payment Options for Class XII Answer Sheet Verification

NEW DELHI: Amid confusion among candidates following the launch of the system earlier this week, CBSE Wednesday clarified that students applying for verification and re-evaluation of Class XII answer sheets do not need to hold accounts with State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda or Indian Bank for payments on board’s online portal. Board also said the portal was functioning smoothly despite a major cyberattack attempt Tuesday, when the system came under a barrage of denial-of-service attacks within minutes of its launch. The clarification came after several students alleged on social media that the re-evaluation portal appeared to restrict payments to customers of these four banks. In a statement issued on X, CBSE said portal merely uses payment gateways operated by the four public sector banks. “Candidates may use the available online payment options — UPI, net banking, credit card and debit card — through the designated gateways,” board said. On the cyberattack attempt Tuesday which generated nearly 1.5 million hits on portal within two minutes, along with more than one lakh attempts at unauthorised file access, board said its technical teams had been on the job continuously to maintain stability and security of the platform. “The portal has accepted 4,924 applications for verification and 39,056 applications for re-evaluation (total of 43,980) as of 12 noon today,” CBSE said. It added that students should rely only on official CBSE communication for information regarding the process. The verification and re-evaluation facility was ope-ned on June 2 for students who had earlier obtained sc-anned copies of their answer books evaluated under boar-d’s new digital On-Screen Marking (OMS) system.