No new ICAR exam date after cancellation worries aspirants
Almost two weeks after the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the authority to conduct the All India Entrance Examination for Admission (AIEEA), cancelled its 23rd online examination held on June 22 and 23, citing administrative reasons, students are a worried lot.
Even as they hope for the announcement of the new date soon, aspirants for a seat in undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD courses also decry the inconvenience the exam cancellation has caused them.
Across the country, 1.7 lakh students took the exam, of which thousands are from Haryana, as it is an agricultural state.
“We had to schedule our travel plans a day before the exam as my centre was in Faridabad, even as I am a Yamunanagar resident. All that effort has gone waste and I am shocked at the cancellation,” said a student, wishing to study at the National Dairy Research Institute of Karnal district.
A girl student, who appeared at the exam at a private college in Ambala, said, “I have take admission in a seat available in BSc (non-medical) in a private college, where the fee is ₹22,000. If I clear the exam and get a seat in a better college, this money will not be refunded.”
While there is no official word on the cause of the cancellation, except administrative reasons, an ICAR official, told HT on the condition of anonymity, “The exams was cancelled as the process of exam was outsourced to an agency but that agency could not manage the exam properly due to the unexpected number of aspirants.”
He added that the agency had hired engineering colleges and computer labs for these online exams, but there were complaints that in many centres all students could not appear due to shortage of computers.
“New dates are yet to be announced,” he said, adding that for the ICAR, the academic year began in August, and to make up for the delay due to the cancellation, the December holidays could be curtailed.
Dr Narendra Singh Rathore, deputy director general of division of education of ICAR, said, “The exams will be conducted in the next two weeks.”
On reasons for the cancellation, he said, “I don’t know as I was on leave at the time.”