Patna: The delay in publication of Intermediate and matriculation results is adversely affecting students, especially those planning to pursue undergraduate courses outside Bihar.

The Intermediate exams, conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), were held in February so that results could be declared early. But going by the delay, it appears that this year too, the result is unlikely to be declared before May-end.

The board, after the introduction of various measures such as 50 per cent objective questions, optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets, computerised evaluation of answer sheets, expected they will be able to declare results early, but it failed again.

Abhishek Ranjan, a student of AN College, said: "I had planned to apply for Delhi University but now it appears I will not be able to apply as the last date for online application for Delhi University colleges is June 7, while we are hearing results will be declared by the first week of June."

With the delay in declaration of Intermediate results, the Patna University has extended the last date for filling forms for entrance examination for various undergraduate courses till May 31.

Education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma said: "This year, the board has taken extra precautions. We are going through all aspects so that there are no anomalies in the results. This is taking time. The Intermediate results will be declared by June first week."

Sources said generally the Intermediate results are declared by mid-May while the matriculation results are declared a week later.

In 2017, the results were declared on May 30 after a delay of nearly 20 days from its previous year. In 2016, the Intermediate results were declared on May 10.

Last year, the results were delayed as the board had taken precaution in preparing the results after the 2016 topper scam.

In the name of "Operation Clean" in 2017, the board cancelled affiliations of more than 200 dummy Intermediate colleges and the copies were evaluated under the watchful eyes of closed circuit television cameras and centralised evaluation. When the results were declared, the board had to face humiliation again as its arts topper too turned out to be a fraud.

Ganesh Kumar, a student of RNSJN Utkramit Madhya Vidhyalaya in Samastipur, was declared the topper of Class XII examination from the arts stream with 82.6 percent marks. He had allegedly fudged his age.