The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Thursday announced stern measures to stop cheating during matriculation exam in 2016, including delisting centres cheating in past three years.

State Education minister Ashok Choudhary told reporters that it has been decided to drop centres blacklisted for large-scale cheating in the past three years from the list of venues where matriculation examination would be conducted for nearly 16 lakh examinees in March 2016. There are around 12 such blacklisted schools, he said.

These include the government school at Mahnar in Vaishali district whose photograph showing parents and friends scaling wall of the four-storeyed building like spiders to give chits to the examinees in March this year had gone viral giving a bad name to the state, he said.

Accompanied by Principal Secretary Education D S Gangwar, Choudhary said in case of report of mass scale copying in the 2016 Matriculation examination from any centre, responsibility would be fixed on the concerned District Education Officer and head of that centre.

In a bid to conduct a cheating-free examination, the Education minister said that exam schedule has been announced in advance of 100 days this time. Promising to strike at the root of the problem, the minister, who is also state chief of Congress, said efforts would be made that syllabus was completed well in time so that students go prepared to the exam centres.