Indore: In a shocking admission, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) vice-chancellor Prof Renu Jain has said that computers with the varsity are “obsolete”, so, the National Testing Agency (NTA) did not make the university campus a centre for the Common Entrance Test (CET). This revelation is shocking as, even though the CET is DAVV’s own entrance exam, it failed to become a centre for it, while 16 other institutions in the city have been selected by the NTA for the purpose.
This fact came to light during a conversation between the vice-chancellor and Congress leaders while the latter were pushing their demand for ensuring that all students of Indore take the CET, 2021, in their own city. During the conversation, the Congress leaders asked why all teaching departments at DAVV had not been made centres for the CET for accommodating Indore students who had been allocated examination centres in Bhopal and in remote districts.
Replying to this, the vice-chancellor said the NTA had not made DAVV a centre for CET as “our computers aren’t as advanced as they wanted for conducting the CET.” How outdated the IT infrastructure of DAVV—the only Grade A+ accredited university in Madhya Pradesh—is could be understood from this revelation. DAVV has around 1,000 computers in its central lab and labs in different teaching departments.
Around 1,771 students opt for second phase of CET
A total of 1,771 students out of nearly 6,000 students from Indore, who were allocated centres for CET in Bhopal and other cities, have decided not to take part in the CET scheduled on August 31. They, instead, chose to avail of the second CET date which is still to be decided.
Take note: Many students had given Indore as their first choice of centre, but were allocated centres in other districts. The Congress, NSUI and ABVP had staged protests over the issue. As a result, DAVV—in consultation with the NTA—had announced the holding of the CET into two phases. It had invited applications from Indore students who were allocated centres in other cities but wanted to write the examination in Indore centre till 3 pm on Sunday. ‘The NTA has received about 1,771 applications,’ said CET coordinator Kanhaiya Ahuja. Congress state vice-president Ajay Chordia said these were those students who were from middle-class families and would not have gone to another city to take their examination.
Report to centre 2 hours before exam
CET will be held in two shifts on August 31. The first shift will start at 10 am and second shift at 3 pm. Students who had applied for courses in Group A and Group C will have to take the first shift examination, while Group B students will have to take the second shift examination. Students will get one and a half hours to write the examination.
‘Students will have to report two hours before commencement of the CET so that Covid-19 protocols can be followed,’ Ahuja said. According to information, DAVV has appointed observers for only Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain. For the rest of the cities, local observers will do the monitoring.
