At PU cyber cafes, students paying through the nose

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

Cyber cafes at Panjab University are charging almost five times extra from students to fill forms online for various departments. The cost of filling forms varies with the number of options the students want to fill.

For instance, if a student wants to fill four options in social sciences, he or she has to pay Rs 100 while for filling eight options, the cost is Rs 150 per form. This is in stark contrast to the normal rate of Rs 20 for 30-minute surfing at the university.

All cyber cafes have displayed the rate list for filling forms online. A huge rush was witnessed at the cyber cafes today as earlier the PU had announced June 30 as the last day for filling forms online, which was extended today to July 4.

The help desk set up on the campus received a large number of queries from students such as “where can we fill the forms online and how to fill the choices”.

Even students from Chandigarh preferred to visit cyber cafes to avoid any mistake which, they felt, could come in the way of their admission.

At the help desk, students wanted to know whether it was compulsory to fill the form online and whether they were also required to submit a hard copy to the department.

PU online coordinator Yograj said the university authorities had no control on the amount being charged by cyber cafes.

Student parties lure freshers

Student parties are not missing any opportunity to establish contact with freshers by helping them in submitting hard copies in the respective departments. Donning badges of their respective parties, the workers were seen guiding students in various departments regarding the admission process.