MAY 5: Several University examiners have been shifted from the Central Hall of the Jawaharlal Nehru Library in Mumbai University's Kalina campus to another part of the building to make way for a Satyanarayan pooja. The day-long ceremony is being held on Wednesday for the `well-being' of the university.Over 15,000 answer papers, some of them belonging to the third-year B Com. students of the University of Mumbai that were being assessed under one roof at the hall, were also removed. While the university officials maintain that the assessment work under the Centralised Assessment Project (CAP) scheme has not suffered due to the pooja ceremony, some examiners stated that vital examination work should be given preference over pooja. ``Since the university's non-teaching employees have scheduled to hold the Satyanarayan ceremony on Wednesday, all the exam papers were shifted en masse from the huge central hall of the library to two smaller rooms in the `C' wing of the library. A lot of manpower was alsounnecessarily wasted in this shunting of papers as well as the furniture,'' examiners said. They further stated that not only was this shift within the sprawling library irritating, the teachers were worried of losing answer-books, including those of the just concluded BCom exams in the bargain. On Tuesday the university karamcharis were busy readying the stage for the ceremony, which is reportedly an annual feature.The university librarian, V P Rajhansa, stated that the exam work was not disturbed since the papers were shifted within the library premises and that the assessment work is now smoothly going on in the `C' wing. However, she refused to divulge which subject papers were being assessed.``Since the papers have been transferred in the same building it is not a problem and we hold the Satyanarayan pooja every year. Only this time it has clashed with the exam assessment work,'' she added.When contacted, the VC Dr Snehalata Deshmukh said that though she had permitted the employees to conduct thepooja, she was unaware of the fact that exam papers were to be shifted. ``I did give the sanction for the pooja but not for the transfer of exam papers,'' remarked Dr Deshmukh. The librarian, on the other hand, argued that the assessment work on the ground floor was not disturbed at all since the university workers needed only the central hall on the first floor for the ceremony. ``I personally consider the pooja function as a time for social interaction. The employees get an opportunity to get together and sing and dance. There is no harm in it,'' said Rajhansa.However, some academicians sought to known why the pooja could not have been held in the `C' wing, instead of shifting the papers there.
