Tenth class students have harrowing time reaching exam centres

New Delhi, Mar 2: With the capital virtually under siege due to US President George W Bush's visit, tenth standard students, who had to write their first CBSE paper today, bore the brunt of the elaborate security arrangements.

Despite starting early from their homes, scores of students had a harrowing time reaching the centres due to traffic jams and several routes being out of bounds.

Various parts of the city were gridlocked for hours from early this morning, making certain parts of the capital inaccessible.

Anxious students, accompanied by parents, had to walk long distances after abandoning their vehicles to reach the examination centres.

Large-scale anti-Bush protests by various organisations also added to the chaos.

Candidates coming from East, South and Central Delhi were the ones who faced most of the problems.

With the US President and First Lady Laura Bush, escorted by a 60-car motorcade, visiting various places across the city, Delhi Traffic Police had yesterday advised asking people to avoid several routes, including Connaught Place, Barakhamba Road and Parliament Street between 1000-1600 hrs.

Keeping in mind the ''unprecedented situation'', CBSE Chairman Ashok Ganguly had directed the examination supervisory to allow students to write their papers even if they were late.

''The students will not be stopped from appearing for the examination.. instructions have been issued to all schools,'' he added.

Class ten Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations commenced across the country today.

More than 6,46,366 pupils, including 3,77,448 boys, wrote the social sciences paper for the tenth class. The figure for tenth class recorded an increase of 6.55 per cent from last year when 6,06,632 students appeared.

UNI