Engineering admission schedule derails

Thousands of aspiring engineers and their parents had a sleepless night on Wednesday as the schedule of first year engineering centralised admissions announced by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) got derailed.

As per the schedule, the allotment list of first year engineering admissions was to be released on Wednesday morning but the DTE failed to announce it till Thursday morning.

DTE officials cited the delay as 'due to technical snag'. There was also no explanation forthcoming as to what measures are being taken to ensure that the admission procedure goes as per schedule.

Even as the procedure can be corrected and the final list of admissions can be released on time, the delay has left students and parents anxious.

Many students faced inconveniences because of the 24-hour delay in releasing the results.

Rohit Tule from Latur said, "I visited the city on Wednesday to seek admission in a college. Now I have to pay for the lodging and boarding for an extra day."

"I am fed up with the website. It does not give us updated information," said an anxious Suman Pataskar, another student.
Members at the various admission receiving centres (ARCs) in the city faced a tough time answering the questions raised by worried students on Wednesday. Speaking to dna on condition of anonymity, an ARC member said, "Even as we are into this admission process for the past many years, we are facing this problem for the first time this year. Neither does DTE reply to our queries nor give any prompt notification."

The engineering admissions conducted by DTE began from June 7 with online submission of forms. But students were unable to see their CET late in the evening as the server was down.

Students left in the dark

DTE has failed to give any reason for not following its Centralised Admission Process (CAP) pre-announced schedule leaving students in the dark. The final merit list which was to be declared by 5 pm on June 19 was not declared on time. This created confusion among students as the mock allotment was to be started from the next day and, without the list, it was difficult for them to select colleges.