Students appear in the 2007-2008 matriculation examination, which started from Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, March 25: As over 7.69 lakh students across 38 districts of Bihar started taking their matriculation examinations from today, the state government readied itself to act as the Big Brother.

Despite strict vigilance, the officials at the board’s control room told The Telegraph that nearly 24 students were expelled on the first day. The final figure, said an official, had not been worked out.

Officials of the state human resource development department have been asked to be extra vigilant and visit centres regularly this year to stop unfair means.

Jawans of Special Auxiliary Police have been deployed at some centres, while policemen in civil clothes were on vigil at others.

The HRD ministry has asked its principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and Bihar School Examination Board secretary Anoop Kumar Sinha to conduct surprise inspections at all times.

Board secretary Sinha conceded that the state government had ordered video recording of all the 1,000 “sensitive” centres across the state. To stop any scope for malpractice different sets of question papers have also been introduced. To top it all, the Bihar board sought co-operation of all district magistrates in centre inspection and has ordered cancellation of the paper of any student, who is caught “in the act”.

Several flying squads have been constituted to conduct surprise inspections. Use of mobile phones has been strictly prohibited.

Students, however, will be given 15 minutes extra to read their question papers, besides their stipulated three hours for each paper. The board examination started with the English paper today.

Despite all the precaution, cases of malpractice were reported from centres in Munger, Lakhisarai, Madhubani, Supaul and Samastipur. In the rest of the centres the examinations were conducted peacefully.

Patna district magistrate Jitendra Kumar Sinha said Patna students, numbering over 60,000, sat for their tests in 1,094 centres.