Confusion over venue disrupts NET,UGC says will hold fresh round soon

While angry applicants gathered at the centre — Kirori Mal College in Delhi University’s North Campus — to complain about the confusion,both the UGC and the college authorities tried to shift the blame on the students.

In a statement,principal of KMC S P Gupta informed the UGC that the venue list had been uploaded by the college a week ahead of the exam on June 22. It said,“Some students,who had noted the wrong venue,arrived at the Kirori Mal College centre and insisted that they be allowed to sit for the exam. They created a ruckus by forcibly entering the examination halls and snatching away answer sheets from students who were busy writing exams.”

UGC too blamed the students for the confusion,saying that they mistakenly took down the wrong venue. Deputy Secretary of UGC’s NET Bureau Surinder Singh said,“To our knowledge,the centre was not changed and the students noted down the incorrect centre. They should have checked the list before leaving for the exam centre.”

An MPhil student at Delhi University,Neetu Dabas who was scheduled to sit for the exam at Springs Model School in Ashok Vihar,said,“I reached the venue at 8.45 am and was informed that the centre had been changed. There were nearly 300 students from my centre alone and no one had information on where the new centre would be. So we rushed to KMC,which is the coordination centre for the exam.” Neetu claimed that she had last checked the college website at 11.30 pm on Saturday night and the centre had not been changed then.

However,in a relief for many,the UGC announced that the exam would be conducted again for all students who could not take it on Sunday. “We will conduct the exam again as soon as we know the number of students affected by today’s confusion,” Surinder Singh said.

Besides the NET,the UGC had also scheduled the recruitment examination for education officers on Sunday. As KMC was the only centre in the Delhi region,UGC decided on a fresh round of recruitment as well owing to the “disruption at the college”.

The UGC has sought a report from the college into the incident. The KMC principal could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

The NET is conducted bi-annually for lectureship and Junior Research Fellowships. Nearly 8 lakh students registered for the test this year and Kirori Mal College was one of UGC’s 79 coordinating centres across the country.