A majority of these documents have already been damaged by termites, moisture and improper upkeep.

Set up in 1921 at Allahabad, the Board has so far conducted 98 board exams.

To preserve records of its students’ marksheets, certificates, scrutiny results and other such documents, the Board had established a micro filming unit since its inception. But due to the official apathy, most of the records have been destroyed, sources said, adding that several proposals to preserve the records have been gathering dust in the absence of administrative will.

“I am a 1965 pass out. But I later, lost my originals. I was supposed to show my date of birth for getting insurance, but when I approached the Board for getting duplicates, the attending clerk categorically refused to entertain me stating that all records of that year have been damaged,” said a worried S K Tripathi.

“Records of 21 years (from 1959 to 78) of the Board have been completely damaged and could not be retrieved now. If immediate measures are not taken to preserve the existing documents, nearly 500 million students would not be able to get their duplicate marksheets and certificates,” said a Board official.

For 35 years — from 1923 to 1958 — the Board had preserved the records through micro filming. Since the cost of the process was very high and the preservation method inefficient, the Board decided to drop the idea.

Of late, the Board had decided to preserve the records through digitisation and had sent a proposal in this regard to the state government in 1998 but the proposal could not see the light of the day.

It has been learnt that the government had forwarded the proposal to Uttar Pradesh Development Systems Corporation Limited (UPDESCO), which demanded Rs five crore for the project.

Considering the seriousness of the matter, the Board recently sent another proposal to the government explaining the need of preservation and the expected loss if immediate measures were not taken. The state government again sent the proposal to UPDESCO which this time quoted Rs 2.50 per page for scanning and preservation. This would cost the Board around Rs 100 crore, sources revealed.