Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) is finding itself in the grip of a tumultuous situation as the ensuing Lok Sabha elections are clashing with the scheduled semester exams. More than 90 officials and employees from the exam and confidential departments, including examination controller, deputy registrar and assistant registrar, have been roped into poll duty, triggering a cascade of disruptions. With half a dozen exams now hanging in the balance, approximately 40,000 students face uncertainty and inconvenience due to the inevitable rescheduling. Vice-chancellor Prof Renu Jain has called a meeting on Wednesday wherein new dates of exams will be decided.
Days after announcement of the Lok Sabha election dates, the university had written a letter to the district election officer Asheesh Singh in the last week of March requesting him to exempt the employees of the examination and confidential department from election duty citing the scheduled timetables of semester exams.
The request was overlooked and the employees of both the departments were put on poll duty. Compounding the predicament, senior officers, including Dr Ashesh Tiwari, deputy registrar Rachna Thakur, assistant registrar Dr Vishnu Mishra who are essential for decision-making processes related to examinations and result declaration have also been seconded for training during April 15 to 19. As the university staff will be on election duty, crucial tasks such as paper delivery and logistical arrangements for exams have been jeopardised, compelling university authorities to contemplate a revised timetable.
“Semester exams of BA-LLB, BBA-LLB, BCom-LLB and other courses are scheduled from April 16. When almost all the staff of exam and confidential departments will be on poll duty, its obvious exams will not be held at the prescribed schedule,” said a senior officer of DAVV wishing anonymity. He stated that the MBA first and third semester exams which were scheduled to start in the last week of April have been already extended to the second week of May.
“However, those exams are likely to be extended once again,” he added. Expressing grave concern over the looming crisis, the V-C said that she would hold talks with the district election officer to mitigate the adverse impact on thousands of students.
Results to be delayed
Final year exams of undergraduate courses are being conducted between April and June. Answer books of students are being sent from colleges to the evaluation centre. But the work of coding and decoding of answer sheets is going on slowly as the number of employees of the confidential department is already less as 37 of the staff is on poll related work. Resultantly, answer copies are not reaching the evaluators on time which will lead to delay in exam results.
