Students queue up for forms at a Siliguri college. Picture by Diptendu Dutta

Siliguri, June 17: Long winding queues, aching legs and anxious faces. Admission time this year is going hand in hand with the rising mercury level.

Though as many as 25 colleges under the North Bengal University have introduced new subjects, both in pass and honours courses from this academic session, it has done little to ease the tension of students. The pressure of competition, intensified by high pass percentage and higher scores this year is enough for sleepless nights.

?More than 4,000 application forms have been sold out for less than 1000 seats in our college,? said Malay Karanjai, the principal of Siliguri College. Karanjai said this year his college was witnessing a new trend with the influx of foreign students. ?An unusual number of students from Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, besides south Bengal, are applying to our college,? he said. Though he could not definitely account for the trend, Karanjai attributed this to the performance of the institution, one of the oldest and biggest in the region.

Relatively newer and smaller colleges are also witnessing a huge turnout. ?For only about 200 seats, more than 500 forms have been distributed,? said Ranajit Kumar Das, the principal of Kalipada Ghosh Terai Mahavidyalaya (KGTM), Bagdogra. Set up in 1988, with only a commerce department, the college now offers honours courses in accountancy, Bengali, history and English. ?This time we are introducing political science and geography as honours subjects and Hindi as a general subject,? Das said.

Commerce, as a subject may have fewer takers than science and humanities, but the pressure on Siliguri College of Commerce, one of the oldest in the region, has not eased in any way. ?We are afraid we will have to close our doors to a large number of students. We have already given out 1,600 forms for 600 seats,? principal A.K. Mukherjee said.

Arabic, as a subject, will be taught for the first time in north Bengal. ?South Malda College will introduce Arabic as an honours subject, while in Chanchal College, it will be studied as a general subject,? Nupur Das, the secretary of undergraduate council, North Bengal University, said. ?Several colleges are introducing new subjects. Depending upon their requirements, the colleges made their applications to the Higher Education Council, which gave them the necessary clearance,? she added.

In Siliguri, apart from KGTM, new courses are being introduced in Surya Sen (sociology, Bengali and mathematics as an honours subjects) and Siliguri Women's College (geography and sociology as general subjects).

In the Hills, Cluney Women?s College, Kalimpong, is offering Nepali, history and geography as honours subjects and Kalimpong College will introduce geography honours from this year.