The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has decided to beef up the money and freebies given to Intermediate and matriculation examination toppers from this year.

The first, second and third rank holders in both the examinations will get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.

All toppers - from all streams, science, arts and commerce - will also get a laptop and a Kindle e-reader.

Those ranked fourth to tenth in matriculation will get Rs 10,000 and a laptop, while in Intermediate, ranks 4 and 5 will get Rs 15,000 and a laptop.

Earlier, matriculation toppers from rank 1 to 10 used to get Rs 10,000 and a laptop, while the five Intermediate toppers from all streams used to get Rs 15,000 and a laptop.

The Intermediate results will be declared on Tuesday, while the matriculation results will be declared by the second week of June.

A governing body meeting, which BSEB chairman Anand Kishor chaired, took the new decision. "The board took the decision to encourage toppers," Kishor said. "Intermediate toppers, whose results are declared tomorrow (Tuesday), will get the benefits."

The toppers will be felicitated on December 3 on the birth anniversary of the country's first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Last year, the toppers were not felicitated because of the topper scam.

Sources in BSEB said the Intermediate results are ready and will be declared on Tuesday afternoon.

"The Intermediate pass percentage this year will be less as compared to that last year," a source said. Last year the pass percentage was 66 in science, 57 in arts and 80 in commerce.

Sources said the pass percentage will be less this year because BSEB introduced measures to check cheating in the Intermediate examination. Stung by last year's topper scam, the board has introduced bar coding of answer sheets, strict frisking at examination centres and other measures to check use of unfair means in the examinations.

A BSEB official said: "The introduction of bar coding of answer sheets has minimised human interference in the evaluation of copies. As the bar code was the only identity of the candidates' answer sheets, there was no scope of recommendation for increasing marks in answer sheets."

In its governing board meeting too, BSEB also okayed the appointment of an additional examination controller to look after all other examinations (barring matriculation and Intermediate) that the board conducts. The BSEB already has an examination controller for matriculation and Intermediate students.