RU officials enjoy lunch during the NET examination at Ranchi College. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Dec. 30: Around 1,101 postgraduate students today appeared for the National Eligibility Test (NET) of the University Grants Commission (UGC), while over 100 Ranchi University (RU) officials enjoyed a feast on the building terrace.

The examination was being held in RU’s postgraduate department of botany, while the feast comprising fried fish, puris, jalebis and salad among others was on, on the sprawling terrace upstairs.

“This is not illegal but unethical. UGC gives anything between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 to RU for conducting the national-level examination. But around Rs 2 lakh is spent on conducting the examination, including the feast. The balance is managed by the RU’s internal resources,” said a senior RU official, requesting anonymity.

The trend has been there since several years now, revealed a senior RU teacher. “It is an opportunity to impress upon the leading figures from academia,” he added.

RU sources told The Telegraph that around Rs 2.40 lakh was spent to conduct the bi-annual tests this June.

Some RU officials had objected to this “lavish conduct of examination using financial resources realised from the students”, but in vain.

During the feast, senior RU teachers and officials, including vice-chancellor A.A. Khan discussed the negative trend of postgraduates taking less interest in the national-level scholarship and teaching eligibility test.

Out of 1,489 students, registered for taking tests in RU, only 1,101 appeared for 32 subjects.