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As many as 140 students from the veterinary, agriculture and forestry departments of Birsa Agriculture University (BAU), Ranchi, on Wednesday petitioned Governor Syed Ahmed, chief minister Arjun Munda , the two deputy chief ministers and agriculture minister to cancel the postgraduate entrance exams held last month.
The students have also warned that they will be compelled to disrupt classes for an indefinite period if no action is taken to cancel the exams by September 14.
In June, BAU, for the first time, decided to hold entrance exams for admission to postgraduate courses in agriculture, veterinary science and animal husbandry, forestry and biotechnology. A BAU notice said the PG entrance exam would comprise one question paper with 200 objective type questions covering all subjects taught at the undergraduate level. The cut off marks was fixed at 50 per cent for general candidates and 40 per cent for SC/ST categories.
“The syllabus for each subject was not specified. The distribution pattern of questions according to subjects and topics was not spelt out either. There are more than 20 different subjects that are taught at the undergraduate level at BAU and students cannot be expected to be thorough in all,” the letter addressed to the Governor alleged.
Terming the entrance exams illegal, the letter pointed out that no preference was granted to existing BAU students interested in pursuing a PG course.
“This is a standard practice in all universities where local domiciled students are given preferential treatment in the admission process. However, BAU has chosen to disregard its own students in favour of students from outside the state,” the students alleged.
In other agricultural universities in the country, final year undergraduation results are declared by April each year to enable graduating students to take admissions to the various postgraduate courses on time.
At BAU, the sessions run late and by the time final year results are announced, it is well past November. Since PG sessions at all universities commence by August, BAU students are required to waste a full academic year to seek admission to PG courses.
BAU registrar N. Kudada, when contacted by The Telegraph, said the entrance exams could not be cancelled.
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