Mysuru: The Second Pre-University examinations began peacefully this morning with nearly 37,205 students from Science, Arts and Commerce stream writing Physics and Economic papers at 50 centres in the District (out of which 26 centres are in the city).

There was tight Police security as the question papers were moved in GPS-fitted vehicles from the District Treasury to Periyapatna, Bettadapura and Kittur first at 7.30 am and they were videographed.

The vans were asked to reach the designated places without stopping anywhere before the questions papers reach the examination centres. Students reached the centres 45 minutes before the examinations commenced and many were seen being accompanied by their parents or other family members.

Eleven flying squads with the Deputy Director of Pre-University Education (DDPUE), Principals, Tahsildars and Block Education Officers heading each squad are moving from centre to centre to check for malpractices or any untoward incidents. However, no such incidents were   reported at any centres today.

Section 144 has been imposed 200 metres around all  the exam centres and Xerox shops near the centres have been closed.

Each examination centre is provided with drinking water facility. Mobile phones or any other electronic device is not allowed, except for calculators, said DDPUE Dr. Dayanand.

But there was some confusion at Sadvidya Semi-Residential PU College in Vijayanagar where a few parents alleged that their children’s examination centre had been shifted to the Puttaswamy School at the last moment without their knowledge.

However, Dr. Dayanand told Star of Mysore that there was neither confusion nor inconvenience caused to students. “Some of the students are repeaters and hence they cannot be accommodated in the same school where they have applied to write the exams. Hence without any problem they were shifted to the neighbouring Puttaswamy School,” he said.

There is about 8 to 10 per cent absenteeism for the exams today, he said and added however, the exact figures would be known only by evening.

The exams which began at 10.15 am ended at 1.30 pm.  Tomorrow (Mar.2) examinations will be conducted for IT, Retail, Automobile, Healthcare, Beauty and Wellness.

Say it with roses

Meanwhile, Mysuru District Newspaper Dealers Association wished good luck for PU students by giving them roses, sweets and stationery items at Mahajana PU College and other colleges in city. The team included Association President Janardhan, Assistant Secretary A. Ravi, Newspaper Distributors Chandru, Varada, Chandrashekar and Shekar.

Physics paper easy

The students came out of the exam centres in a happy frame of mind. Many students whom Star of Mysore spoke to said that the Physics paper was easy as it contained 75 per cent of expected questions.

Shylendra of Marimallappa’s said that Physics paper was really easy and he expected to score a distinction.

Similarly, a few students of Vishwaprajna Composite PU College were beaming as they came out of the centre. “We hope that other subjects would also be equally easy for us to write,” they said