A total of 19.58 lakh students will appear for the Intermediate public examinations that are scheduled to start on March 2. The examinations will be conducted in 2,488 centres across the state. The results are expected to be released by last week of April.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, M Subramanyam, secretary, Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) said, students indulging in cheating would be booked under the Prevention of Malpractices (in examination) Act and barred from writing exams.

He said that principals of the colleges or chief superintendents had been told to bring to the notice of BIE any discrepancies in photographs and signatures in hall tickets due to implementation of the online application process. "Since BIE has implemented the online application process for the first time, errors are bound to happen," he said.

The evaluation of answer scripts would begin in the second week of March. Show cause notices would be served on lecturers if they failed to turn up for evaluation this year. About 40% of the lecturers had not turned up for evaluation last year, he said. "Last year, lecturers without adequate experience were drafted for evaluation work in view of seniors failure to take up the work. However, we will not allow any replacements this year," Subramanyam said. Copies of the marks sheets of Inter students would be sent to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) by June 7, so that Eamcet ranks could be worked out after adding 25% of weightage.

The board has set up district examination committees and high power committees for the smooth conduct of the examinations. While the district panels will have two principals and one of the senior lecturers from the district, the high power committee will be headed by the district collector. "Strict action will be taken against officials and managements who resort to malpractices or irregularities," Subramanyam warned. Officials said that RTC authorities were informed of the schedule of the examinations so that they could make arrangements in advance for plying special buses for the benefit of students, he said.

BIE authorities said that the revision of textbooks in tune with the requirements of national entrance and eligibility test (NEET) was underway. "We have prepared the content for Inter first year students based on NCERT syllabus and English medium textbooks are now sent to Telugu Academy for translation," Subramanyam said. The revision of second year textbooks would start in the next academic year.