Prayagraj, Feb 21 (IANS): Nearly 776 examination centres for Class 10 and Class 12 exams of Uttar Pradesh Board have been identified as sensitive and 275 centres have been declared highly sensitive by the Uttar Pradesh Board for its high school and intermediate exams beginning from Thursday.

A total of 16 districts of the state have also been declared highly sensitive by the Uttar Pradesh Board.

These districts include Mathura, Baghpat, Aligarh, Mainpuri, Etah, Hardoi, Azamgarh, Ballia, Mau, Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Chandauli, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Deoria and Gonda.

This year, a total of total 55,25,308 candidates, including 29,47,311 students for class 10 and 25,77,997 for class 12, have registered for the Uttar Pradesh Board exams.

These candidates will take the exam at 8,265 centres spread across 75 districts of the state, said Uttar Pradesh Board Secretary Divyakant Shukla.

Among them, 257 candidates are inmates lodged in different prisons of the state as well. Of them, 139 are to appear in class 12 exams while 118 will take class 10 exams.

Shukla said, "To conduct the exams in a free and fair manner, 1,297 sector magistrates, 430 zonal magistrates, 416 mobile teams and 75 state-level supervisory officers have been appointed in all districts for inspection and supervision of examination centres."

CCTV cameras with more than 2.90 lakh voice recorders have been installed in around 1.35 lakh examination rooms at all 8,265 examination centres.

"Arrangements for DVR (digital voice recorders), router devices and high-speed internet connections have also been made," he added.

Both Class 10 and Class 12 exams are starting from February 22 and would conclude on March 9 in a total of 12 working days.

Arrangements have been made for live monitoring through webcasting.

Besides, Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police and local intelligence unit have also been roped in for monitoring sensitive and highly sensitive examination centres.

A call centre would also be operated at the state control room for quick redressal of the complaints of candidates and general public, in which two helpline numbers would be activated.

As per officials, for the first time, command and control centres have been set up at the Uttar Pradesh Board headquarters in Prayagraj as well as all the five of its regional offices at Meerut, Bareilly, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Gorakhpur for round the clock vigil and security of question papers and the strongrooms in which they are being stored.