The Central University Entrance Test (CUET) hit turbulence across two northeastern States after it began on May 15.
An alleged lack of communication between the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong ended in chaos for some 3,700 candidates seeking admission to undergraduate courses. The NTA conducts the CUET.
In western Assam’s Patacharkuchi, an organisation of Brahmins lodged a police complaint against the principal of a college after a candidate was frisked and asked to remove his janeu — sacred thread locally called logun — before being admitted to the examination hall.
Meghalaya’s Education Minister, Rakkam A. Sangma said the State government has taken the CUET examination fiasco seriously. “We will ask the NTA to either re-conduct the examination or to exempt Meghalaya from the test,” he said.
He said the problem began with NTA informing the NEHU authorities at 6 p.m. on May 14 that some 2,000 students would sit for the test, but it sent another message that night revising the figure to almost 4,000 students.
“NEHU did not have time to coordinate. If that were not enough, there was a lot of confusion over the exam centres and too few set-ups were in place to collect the biometrics of hundreds of students,” Mr Sangma said.
The resultant stampede-like situation made a student faint and miss her test while the rest had to wait for more than two hours beyond the scheduled 3 p.m. start for the examination.
“Many students could not do well because of this commotion,” Mr Sangma said, adding that the students in the rural areas were worse off as they could not register for the CUET.
Meanwhile, the Assam State Committee of the All-India Brahmin Front has sought action against Manas Chakraborty, the principal of Bhawanipur Regional College in the Bajali district’s Patacharkuchi for hurting the religious sentiments of the community.
The front said the principal insulted the community by allegedly asking Dhritiraj Vasishtha, a Brahmin candidate, to remove his sacred thread before entering the examination hall. “We demand accountability and appropriate action against those responsible,” the front’s chief secretary, Pabitra Kumar Sarma said.
