Glitch in admission portal leaves Abohar students high and dry

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, July 18

The much-touted centralised admission portal, a proposal for whose introduction had led to several protests by educators of aided colleges earlier this year, is again in the limelight.

In April, when the management committees of colleges were actively opposing the government’s decision to centralised admissions, the protesters were assured by the authorities that the introduction of the portal would ‘streamline’ the admission process for the good of students and colleges.

However, it now seems that the portal has been introduced hurriedly, as it has been facing several glitches over the past few days, leaving hundreds of students here high and dry.

Applicants seeking admission in the first year of graduation courses were asked to reach aided colleges at 9.30 am here on July 6, but portal remained closed till 12.30 noon that day.

When students reached for second counselling today at 9.30 am, the portal did not work till 4 pm. Hundreds of students left for their respective homes, braving a temperature of 41°C.

An interaction with the students revealed that many of them had come not just from the backwaters of Punjab, but a few of them had also come from neighbouring Rajasthan cities.

They expressed disappointment at the situation and said the counters set up for admission remained empty. “We were gripped by anxiety and uncertainty,” a student said. Due to non-operation of the portal, admission process remained disrupted in other cities as well.

Meanwhile, representatives of private colleges kept luring students to reach for admission as they have been kept out of the centralised system.

The authorities at an aided college said a technical problem has led to the disruption and efforts were on to remove it.