Hyderabad, Apr 28 (IANS): The Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) has postponed Advanced Supplementary Exams from May 16 to May 25, it was announced on Sunday.

While the Intermediate First Year (Class 11) exam will be held during morning session, Second Year (Class 12) will be held in the afternoon. The exams will continue till June 1.

According to the schedule earlier announced by the BIE, the exams were to begin on May 16. As the re-verification of answer sheets of all failed students and other applicants is likely to take more time, the BIE has postponed the Advanced Supplementary Exams.

A total of 9.74 lakh students appeared in Intermediate First and Second year exams held in February-March. The Board on April 18 announced the exam results.

However, a goof-up by the BIE in declaring the results sparked a huge row and led to suicide by 20 students during last 10 days.

Following an uproar by the students and parents and protest by student bodies and opposition parties, the state government announced free re-verification of answer sheets of 3.28 lakh students who failed to secure pass marks.

Many students who passed the exams but not satisfied with the marks obtained also applied for re-verification of answer sheets.

A three-member committee, formed by the government to probe the goof-up, found that the BIE and Globarena Technologies, the IT firm whose services were hired by the BIE, committed grave mistakes in preparing the results.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties have decided to intensify the protest over the issue from Monday. The Congress, the TDP, the CPI and the TJS have called for 'chalo Intermediate Board' to press the demand for judicial probe into goof-up and compensation to families of the students who committed suicide.

BJP's state unit has demanded judicial probe by a sitting judge of the high court. BJP National General Secretary Muralidhar Rao announced on Sunday that state BJP chief K. Laxman will launch indefinite fast.