Calcutta, March 4 :     The Madhyamik examinations started today amid tight security. ?The first day?s examination was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state,? West Bengal Board of Secondary Education president Chittaranjan Banerjee said today. Nearly 5.49 lakh candidates are appearing for the examinations. Banerjee said a candidate, who reached the Park Circus Girls? High School centre two hours behind schedule and insisted the authorities allow her to sit for the examination, was not given permission. The matter ended there. The city and the state police authorities have made elaborate arrangements in and around Madhyamik examination centres apprehending leakage of question papers. The Congress had recently alleged in a memorandum that question papers had leaked out a few days before the examinations. Detective department officials were deployed at the examination centres and were also asked to keep a round-the-clock watch on nearby photocopying shops. ?Ten teams comprising officials of the detective department were entrusted with the job of keeping a watch on the xerox centres,? deputy commissioner of police, detective department, Narayan Ghosh said. He also added that policemen were taking extra precautions because of question paper leaks in the past. ?Police vigil will be strengthened on the days of the mathematics, English and science papers,? he added. Policemen are also guarding places in centres where question papers for the second half of the examinations are kept. Plainclothes police personnel are also checking students for cellphones and pagers at the centres. Deputy commissioner of police, headquarters, Nazrul Islam said all city police stations have been alerted for the Madhyamik examinations this year. Police are also checking tutorial homes from where question papers were leaked out earlier. Deputy commissioner Ghosh said that there were no reports of pilferage of question papers during the day. Internet, e-mail service at CTO from today The department of telecommunications will start its first Internet and e-mail club in the city from tomorrow. Sources said Union minister of state for communications Kabindra Purakayastha cleared the state unit?s proposal after a meeting with senior officers early this week. West Bengal Telecom circle chief general manager S.P. Chakraborty said computers will be installed at the Central Telegraph Office (CTO) opposite Telephone Bhawan in central Calcutta, where Calcuttans can browse through the Net and even send and receive e-mail. ?Initially, we will start operating from the CTO, but we have plans to open branches at several other places in the city,? Chakraborty said. Telecom officials said there will be two computers manned by experts at the CTO with Internet and e-mail facilities. Experts will guide first-timers on how to use the service. The Internet service will have two modes: the shell account which will only contain text without pictures, and the TCP/IP account with text, pictures and colour graphics. The authorities said anybody can surf the Net for as long as he or she wants. People can also send as many e-mails as they want to relatives and friends anywhere in the world. ?The facilities will be offered to the public at a nominal fee which can at best be described as affordable? Chakraborty said. Nominal operation fee The telecom authorities have fixed 15 minutes as the minimum operation time for surfing the net. ?One has to pay only Rs 20 to browse through the Net for 15 minutes? Chakraborty said. Subsequent time slabs would be in durations of 15 minutes. The authorities are also keeping an option for subscribers to open an Internet service account with the department. ?Those who open an account will be permitted to give our e-mail address. We will store the subscribers? telephone numbers and send them their messages,? Chakraborty added. Telecom department officials said the club will be open from 10 am to 6 pm every day.