CUET-UG second phase from tomorrow, NTA grapples with requests, complaints

In some cases, candidates, who have already appeared in first phase of CUET-UG held between July 15 and July 20, have been assigned slots even in the second phase, triggering confusion and uncertainty.

On Wednesday, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology (independent charge) Jitendra Singh also raised the issue of candidates from Jammu’s Udhampur being assigned centres at Srinagar’s Goripora with Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The matter was brought to Singh’s attention by BJP J&K president Ravinder Raina. The exam centre for aspirants from Udhampur has “surprisingly been established at Gouripora, Srinagar, which is in the vicinity of Hyderpora, an utterly unsafe place for young students, especially in view of forthcoming Independence Day”, Raina wrote in a letter to Singh.

“A big group of Jammuites may be, God forbid, an easy target for miscreants,” the letter shared by Singh on Twitter added. Later, Singh tweeted that Pradhan has issued instructions to get the centre changed for Udhampur candidates.

But in several other cases, candidates are yet to receive any response from the NTA. For instance, one candidate shared on Twitter that while she sat for the test on July 19-20 in Phase I, NTA has once again issued admit cards in her name, “rescheduling” one of the slots in which she has already appeared.

The NTA responded to the candidate on Twitter, saying someone from the agency will get in touch with her. Many other candidates also flagged similar issues, complaining that the NTA was not addressing their concerns despite repeated reminders.

However, in many cases where candidates requested the agency to reschedule over dates clashing with other exams, the NTA responded positively. Many entrance tests, including BITSAT, MHT CET and AUCET, are scheduled over the next few days.

Candidates have also reached out to the NTA citing allocations of centres in places which they did not opt for while applying – an issue which had also surfaced during the first phase of the entrance. The NTA has allowed 19 candidates who missed the CUET-UG in July due to last-minute changes in examination centres to sit for a retest.

Names of exam centres are also missing from many admit cards, prompting the NTA to ask the candidates to download them again. “I am an aspirant of CUET UG. Tomorrow is my exam and I still have not received the admit card. What should I do?” another candidate tweeted on Wednesday.

So far, the NTA has released the admit cards of candidates who are scheduled to take the entrance on August 4, 5 and 6, as part of the second phase. The admit cards of those appearing on August 7, 8, 10 and 20 will be released later.

Over 14 lakh registrations have been made for the entrance, scores of which will be used by 90 universities across India to admit students to undergraduate degree courses. The first phase, between July 15-20, registered 76.48 per cent attendance.

As many as 44 central universities are mandatorily using CUET scores for admissions in the academic session 2022-23. Moreover, 12 state government-run universities, 21 private and 13 deemed universities have also adopted the common entrance.