E-Paper
Ludhiana: Chaos at ICAR-JRF exam centre amid glitches
Students said they reached the centre between 8 am and 9:30 am according to the guidelines but the process was slow as only one official was deployed to check documents
Ludhiana Hundreds of ICAR-JRF aspirants who turned up at SBS College in Ludhiana for their exam had to face a “harrowing” time owing to technical glitches that forced several of them to be shifted to another exam centre on Saturday morning.
Students said they reached the centre between 8 am and 9:30 am according to the guidelines but the process was slow as only one official was deployed to check documents. Parents said they requested the authorities to deploy additional staff as the reporting deadline approached. They said the main gate was finally closed around 10 am. Then the biometric verification system malfunctioned, due to which out of the nearly 360 candidates present there, over 100 were unable to complete the biometric verification.
As confusion prevailed, the affected students were shifted by bus at 11:30 am to another examination centre in Aurobindo College where they were finally able to take the test.
Many candidates had travelled long distances from districts across Punjab and even from Rajasthan. “We paid nearly ₹1,300 as the examination fee and this was the facility we got there,” said one of the students.
Several students alleged that there was poor ventilation and high humidity, making it difficult to concentrate.
Sanjay Kumar Gupta, father of a candidate, said, “The biometric system did not work for nearly 35 to 40 minutes due to which many students had to wait for hours before being shifted to another centre. Even the fans were inadequate inside the examination hall.”
Manpreet, an aspirant, said the challenge was not the question paper but dealing with delays, uncertainty and discomfort before and during the examination, affecting the students’ concentration.
When contacted, Sandeep Kumar, examination in-charge at the college, said, “This was the first time our college was turned into an examination centre. Amid technical glitches, we didn’t want the students to suffer so we shifted them to another centre. After some time, the system started working again. And everything went smoothly after that.”
