In the wake of the fiasco around the exam for PhD fellowships for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI), Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Research, Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI), Mahajyoti schemes, the examination held on Sunday has been cancelled and the exercise will be re-conducted in January 2024, officials said on Tuesday.
The decision was taken after an urgent meeting was convened at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) after it was revealed that the question paper for the exam was the same as it was for the State Eligibility Test (SET) exam of 2019.
The meeting was chaired by Sunil Ware, the director general of BARTI Sunil Ware, and was attended by senior officers of SARTHI and the head of Mahajyoti Sanstha.
Students discovered that all 50 questions were the same in the question paper distributed on Sunday for the exam held in four centres across Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, and Aurangabad. Many students also claimed that the question papers did not appear in a sealed envelope when it arrived at the centres. Following the discrepancies, students demanded cancellation of the examination and reschedule it immediately.
“The SET exam question paper of 2019 was inadvertently given by the SET Department for the fellowship exam. Therefore, it was decided to postpone the exam and reschedule it for January 2024,” Ware said.
{{/usCountry}}“The SET exam question paper of 2019 was inadvertently given by the SET Department for the fellowship exam. Therefore, it was decided to postpone the exam and reschedule it for January 2024,” Ware said.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, students are annoyed by the debacle of the examination.
One of the aspirants, Tushar Jawalkar stated, “We were shocked to learn that we were given the same question set that was given in the 2019 examination. “Because most of the students had practised on the same paper, we quickly noticed the blunder and reported it to the authorities.”