Patna:  The Bihar School Examination Board is employing strict measures against cheating, including CCTV cameras and prohibitory orders against ‘unlawful assembly’, in conducting class 10 exams that started on Friday.

Anyone found helping the examinees in cheating would be booked and sent to jail, Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said.

There would be prohibition under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code against any gathering of five or more people in areas surrounding the examination centres, he said.

Nearly 15.70 lakh students are taking the Class 10 exams at 1,309 centres across the state on Friday.

The Board had put in place similar tough measures for class 12 exams which were acknowledged to be largely free of cheating and use of unfair means, said Board secretary Hariharnath Jha.

Class 12 exams concluded in the first week of March.

Jha said there was heavy police presence around exam centres.

“CCTV camera have been installed at entrance of examination halls and videography will continue through the duration of the examination,” Jha said.

Use of all communication gadgets, including mobile phones, inside the examination halls has been disallowed.

“Any examinee found with mobile phone or any other communication gadget would be expelled from the centre,” Board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh said.

There would be expulsion, as well as a fine of Rs.10,000, for anyone using unfair means, Singh said.

Mass cheating in board exams has been reported in Bihar for years. Every year, the media carries explicit images of cheating at exam centres, such as scores of people climbing window sills to hand over cheating material to examinees with impunity.

This kind of mass cheating was what was kept in mind in devising the strict measures against the use of unfair means, Singh said.