Bardiya, March 17:

The local administration here has assured that no SLC examinee will be arrested or subjected to mental torture during the SLC examinations.

The assurance follows a request by the district education office to the DAO not to arrest students on charge of being Maoists during the SLC exams.

The District Education Office said the arrest of examinees and meting out mental torture to them would only disturb the examination.

District education officer Chudamani Poudel said, “I have urged the administration not to arrest or harm the examinees.

The administration, too, has assured that it would not arrest the students.” The SLC exams are to begin from March 27 throughout the country.

At least 3,600 students are appearing in the SLC exams in Bardiya. Poudel said there are 12 exam centres - six in district headquarter Guklaria and six out of Guklaria - in the district.

The centres set up out of Gularia - one each in Rambhapur, Bhurigaun and Thakurdwara and three in Rajapur - are set up near security base camps. Poudel said all preparations for the exams in the district are complete. He said question papers and answer copies have already been dispatched to the exam centres outside the district headquarters.