State medical entrance test on track

The Centre's ordinance earlier this week that allowed state boards to hold MBBS entrance tests only for this year has come as a relief for Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (JCECEB), which will again accept applications from Friday for its joint entrance examination on June 12.

The state board, which had stopped accepting medical application forms on May 13 after the Supreme Court ordered NEET as the country's sole medical entrance exam, will resume the process from May 27 to June 2 for the 350 seats on offer in Jharkhand, 150 at RIMS-Ranchi and 100 each at MGM-Jamshedpur and PMCH-Dhanbad.

Dr Pradeep Kumar, the board's controller of examinations, told The Telegraph they had not changed the June 12 date, which had been fixed before the Supreme Court Order and subsequence ordinance.

"We have ample time to release admit cards. Arrangements in the 40 exam centres have already been made," he said. "The result will be declared in the first week of July."

Board officials have said they had received around 40,000 applications, including medical, engineering, forestry, dental and veterinary, among others, till May 16, which was initially its last day of accepting forms. In the next seven days, they expect 5,000-6,000 more applications.

However, the board does not know how many students have applied exclusively for the MBBS entrance test.

This year, the board is making unprecedented arrangements for a fair exam, Dr Kumar said.

"We are installing a massive CCTV network at all centres. This apart, each student appearing in the entrance examination would register his or her attendance through the biometric system to weed out impersonators answering the test. We are also installing jammers at exam centres to stop mobile phones or any short-distance communication device from functioning. Even invigilators would not be able to use their cellphones at the centres," he added.

He added that this year, questions had been set by one agency and papers would be corrected by another. "We are doing all we can for absolute transparency and integrity in the exams," he said.

A source in the board added that any student expelled from a centre for malpractice would be barred from appearing in any other exam organised by the JCECEB.