Several police officers and a headmaster proved to be good Samaritans for higher secondary examinees on Tuesday, the first day of the board exam.

In north Bengal, a number of police officers acted proactively to help students in distress.

Gopal Mondal, a sub-inspector posted at Siliguri police station, was on duty near the Siliguri Girls’ High School around 10am, when the exam was about to commence, when he spotted two girl students of Siliguri Hindi High School, standing perplexed in front of Siliguri Girls’ High School. Mondal found out from them that they had reached the wrong exam centre.

Their seats were in Jyotsnamayee Girls High School in Babupara around 3km away, but they came to this school by mistake.

Mondal, who realised each minute was valuable for the duo, immediately arranged a police vehicle. The girls were escorted to the vehicle which rushed them to the exam centre. There, the police officer confirmed that the girls were allowed to enter and sit in the exams.

Subir Saha, the officer-in-charge of the traffic wing of Dhupguri police station in Jalpaiguri, helped five examinees to reach Gossainhat Rajamohan High School.

The students were standing on AH48 but could not get a vehicle. Saha dropped them to the exam centre in his vehicle.

In Dinhata of Cooch Behar, a policeman took Sonai Biswas, an examinee, to her home on a bike from the exam centre as she had forgotten to carry her admit card, and dropped her at the centre.

Headmaster Biplab Ghosh Majumdar hands over the admit card to examinee Liton Barman in Cooch Behar. Main Uddin Chisti

“It was good to see policemen helping examinees in distress,” said Anjan Das, joint convener of higher secondary exams in Jalpaiguri district.

Biplab Ghosh Majumdar, the headmaster of Paitkapara Mokhtaruddin Uchchatar Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Cooch Behar-I block, reached the school at 6am from Cooch Behar town where he stays, 30km away, to hand over the admit card to student Liton Barman who came from Gangtok.

Liton was staying at the Sikkim capital, around 350km away, for the past few months for athletics training.

“I was doubtful if he would sit for the HS exams, but last night (Monday), he called me up and said he reached Siliguri and would reach Cooch Behar by Tuesday morning. So I biked down 30km to reach the school at 6am, handed him his admit card and arranged his travel to the exam centre (10km away),” said the headmaster.

“I am grateful to my headmaster. I never thought he would reach the school so early to help me,” said the boy.