Eamcet late fee payers on watch

Students who had applied for the Eamcet past the due date, by paying hefty late fees of ` 5,000 and `10,000, will face a test that they had not bargained for. The ‘examiners’ will be police and intelligence officers.

Eamcet officials have submitted the list of these students to the police and intelligence departments to verify their credentials.

Officials suspect that at least some of them could part of a plan to use hi-tech gadgets and Bluetooth technology to commit fraud in the exams, as was the case in the medical stream at some centres two years ago.

The police top brass has directed officials in respective districts to verify each and every student by visiting their houses, based on their address provided in the Eamcet form, to find out their background and the reasons for paying such heavy penalty.

The sleuths of police and intelligence departments, besides Eamcet officials, have already started making phone calls to these students. While the Eamcet fee is `250, if paid within the due date of March 27, as many as 6,690 students submitted applications with a late fee of `500 by April 8; and 1,629 students with a late fee of `1,000 by April 17.

But 342 students paid a late fee of `5,000 by April 27 and 79 others paid `10,000 by 7 pm, on May 4, to write the exam, in addition to the exam fee of `250. Students still have the chance to submit applications with a late fee of `10,000 till May 7. The Eamcet is scheduled for May 10.

“Our aim is not to harass genuine students, but to check malpractice. The police and intelligence departments will enquire whether the reasons for paying late fee were genuine or were done with malafide intentions,” said Dr N.V. Ramana, Eamcet convenor.

“On earlier occasions it was found that the students who indulged in malpractice were those who submitted applications with a late fee. For that reason, we have submitted the list of these students to the police and intelligence departments,” said Dr Ramana Rao.