An estimated 7.45 lakh candidates, including 4.04 lakh girls, wrote their papers as the class 12 exams conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) began on Saturday.
A woman invigilator was killed in a road accident while on her way to an examination centre in South 24 Parganas district.
Strict adherence to COVID-19 norms, including mandatory wearing of masks and physical distancing in the seating arrangement, was ensured at the 6,727 venues, a WBCHSE official said.
The exams began at 10 AM and ended at 1.15 PM.
There was no report of any disruption in the examination process as the officials monitored it from the control room at the council's Vidyasagar Bhavan headquarters.
CCTV or videography facilities were arranged at certain centres in Malda, Murshidabad, North and South 24 Parganas and some other districts.
The offline examinations were initially scheduled to be held from April 2 to April 20. However, as certain dates clashed with the JEE (Main), those were rescheduled and the process will now continue till April 27.
The council could not conduct higher secondary examination last year, and had to cancel it midway in 2020 due to COVID-19. It had devised an evaluation method to award marks.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wished bright future for the candidates and requested everyone to see to it that they did not face any problem while travelling to the exam centres.
Meanwhile, a woman school teacher, identified as 48-year-old Lipika Patowari, was killed after her husband's two-wheeler, on which she was riding pillion to the examination centre, was knocked down by a goods vehicle in Rabindranagar police station area.
She sustained grievous injuries after falling on the road, and was declared brought dead at Vidyasagar Hospital. Her husband was also injured.
