Patna: The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) finally declared the matriculation results on Tuesday, after facing flak for the mysterious disappearance of 42,000 answer sheets and delay in announcing results.

The results were earlier slated to be declared on June 20 (Wednesday), but it was delayed after answer sheets went missing from Gopalganj's SS Girl's Senior Secondary School last Saturday.

Students' pass percentage this year is 68.89 per cent, nearly 18 per cent higher than last year. Like last year, girls and students from Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya (Jamui) performed well. There were four girls and 16 students from Simultala among those holding top ten positions.

Prerna Raj, a student of Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya secured 457 marks out of 500, while Pragya and Sikha Kumari of the same school secured 454 marks.

Education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma said: "The girls performed better because of various welfare schemes launched by the state government."

The results were announced when the school examination board and education department are at the receiving end not only from the Opposition, but also from ruling party leaders. JDU leader and former education minister Ashok Choudhary and BJP MLC Nawal Kishore Yadav have blamed board chairman Anand Kishor for answer copies going missing and delay in declaration of results. The BJP MLC had even questioned the board for declaring matriculation results when the board is yet to recover missing copies.

RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said: " The matriculation and Intermediate exams have become a big joke." He asked who will be responsible for the 42,000 missing copies. "The board is saying students' futures will not be hit because of the missing copies, but if a student whose copies have gone missing demands scrutiny, from where will the board get the copies."

"The board will hold a meeting with panel members to decide scrutiny for students whose copies have gone missing," board chairman Anand Kishor said. "The Gopalganj police and the district administration are investigating the case and have found some important leads." The Gopalganj police have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) and raids are being conducted even in neighboring districts of Uttar Pradesh to trace the missing copies.

Four persons have been arrested in this connection and the principal of SS Girl's Senior Secondary School, Pramod Kumar Srivastava is on the radar of board and police officials.

The BSEB results were announced when all other state and central boards had already declared the results last month. The Class X matriculation examination, being conducted by BSEB, was held in February, while CBSE and ICSE exams were held in March, but the central board despite having a large number of students compared to BSEB declared the results much earlier. The CBSE declared Class X results in the last week of May.