145;Sorry, come back later146;

The lone centre in the state disbursing the application forms failed to deliver for the second time in the last three days.

On Monday, police had to use force to disperse the restive crowd when about 500 students and their parents waiting for the All India Engineering Entrance Examination AIEEE forms at Syndicate Bank on Laxmi Road disrupted traffic. According to the police, the students and their parents turned unruly when they were told that the forms would not be available till Wednesday.

Students, in many cases with parents in tow, had queued up as early as 2 am outside the bank 8212; the only outlet selling AIEEE forms in the entire state. At around 7.45 am, a lady put up a notice on the bank gates asking parents and students to come back on Wednesday.

8220;We were left dumbfounded and were discussing what to do next when suddenly a police van came and used force against some of the students. Many students ran away,8221; said Kumkum Srivastav who had queued up in the wee hours of Monday to procure an AIEEE form for her son.

Police Inspector Chandrakant Jadhav, however, said there was no lathicharge and the police was only trying to control the crowd that had turned unruly.

8220;The authorities could have informed us about the unavailability of forms at least a day in advance through newspapers,8221; said Vijay R who had come all the way from Belgaum to procure a form for his son.

Most of these parents are in agreement when they question why the forms are not being distributed to other branches of the Syndicate Bank or other banks or even through colleges.

Eknath Kamble, manager, Syndicate Bank, said it was up to the Central Board of Secondary Education CBSE to bring in some transparency into the form distribution process. 8220;I was expecting a bunch of 5,000 forms on Saturday but this is yet to happen. After it arrives, I need one day for their accounting, putting a bank seal along with the authorized signature without which they cannot be distributed. I expect to begin the sale of forms only on Wednesday, as I have to do regular bank work also,8221; he said.

According to Kamble at least 25,000 forms are required in Pune, but only about 15,000 are earmarked for this outlet: 8220;The rest have to go on the net and fill up the form online,8221;

But there is reluctance among students to fill forms online as they fear it will result in being allotted examination centres outside the state. 8220;Last year, students who filled applications online had to go to Gujarat, Andaman Nicobar and other far off places to take the examination,8221; said Sapna Gaikwad who came with friends from Dehu Road, missing classes.

Meanwhile, the Vidya Samata Manch, a voluntary organisation in Pune, has launched the website entrancemall.com to collect a database of students from Maharashtra appearing for various entrance exams like MH-CET, AIEEE and IIT-JEE in a bid to ensure that they are not allotted exam centers to far away from home.