Students block entry to CoE office in Patiala

Tribune News Service
Patiala, July 28

Students of Punjabi University today blocked the entry and exit to the office of the Controller of Examinations (CoE) and held a protest.

They alleged the university had been deliberately failing them in a particular exam for collecting the exam fee. Master of Computer Application (MCA) students were joined by those associated with the Democratic Students’ Organisation (DSO), a students’ union.

Over 15 students laid siege to the office of the Controller of Examinations, Jasvirinder Singh, and raised slogans against the university. Later, they allowed the university employees to enter and exit the premises, but restricted the Controller from leaving the office. University functionaries met the students, but the matter could not be resolved. Security officials reached the spot to ensure order on the premises.

Students of the MCA have been holding the protest outside the office of Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr BS Ghuman since Monday. They claimed the university had been failing them in a paper of semester I (Computer Organisation Architecture) since 2017. “We have filed for re-evaluation and re-appeared in the exam repeatedly. Some of our seniors who have appeared for ‘golden chance’ are still being failed repeatedly,” said Rashveer Kaur who claimed she scored over 70 per cent in the remaining semesters.

The students said 33 out of total 70 of 2017-2020 batch were being failed repeatedly.

Another student said: “We have received job offers from companies but have not been able to join them as we are repeatedly being failed in this paper.”

An official of the university said students had been scoring merely two or three marks in the paper and could not pass the paper.

Khattar, who joined the office in June, said the office would act as per the university norms.