Exam centres merged, students cry foul

Jalandhar, November 22

As the semester examinations are set to start in colleges affiliated with IK Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKG-PTU), resentment prevails among students and colleges over reduction in the number of exam centres.

Punjab Unaided Colleges’ Association members have alleged that exam centres of several colleges have been cancelled due to non-payment of fees to the university. The IKG-PTU authorities, however, take the view that some examination centres have been merged.

The university says, “In the previous examinations, there were 115 to 125 centres. This time, the number has reduced to 102. This is because colleges in 11 districts of Malwa, earlier attached with the IKG-PTU, were affiliated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University in 2014. So, the number of students has reduced. Only final-year students of a four-year programme, which started in 2013, are attached with the IKG-PTU.”

A note from the university reads, “As the number of final-year students is fewer, exam centres (in Malwa) have been merged with nearby colleges. It is a routine process. As such, no such examination centre has been cancelled. Around five years ago, it was approved that a college with strength of less than 300 students cannot be considered for an examination centre.”

Anshu Kataria, president, PUCA, said: “The reduction in examination centres will affect 20,000 to 30,000 students.” — TNS