Patna, March 16 (IANS) Over half a million students across Bihar started their Class 12 exams Tuesday, an official said.

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), which conducts the examinations, has made elaborate arrangements for peaceful and fair exams.

'The first day's exam took place at 561 examination centres peacefully and without any trouble,' Anup Kumar Sinha, a BSEB official, told IANS.

BSEB has taken extensive measures to curb cheating for which the state has been notorious in the past, Sinha said.

'The examinations are being conducted with unprecedented measures to curb cheating,' he added.

It has ordered videography at all centres to check cheating and has set up a control room with a telephone for round the clock vigil.

'Special anti-copying squads have been deployed at the district level to keep strict vigil at each centre,' said Sinha.

In Bihar, cheating is rampant and any action to stop it has often led to violent protests.