The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday announced the postponement of the common university entrance test for undergraduate admissions (CUET-UG) in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), which will now take place on May 29 and May 26, respectively.
The decision to postpone the exams in Manipur comes after the state government’s recommendation due to the ongoing tension between ethnic groups in the northeastern state. In J&K, the NTA has rescheduled the exam to establish temporary examination centres within the region, facilitating students in taking the test conveniently.
In a statement, the NTA clarified that the CUET-UG exams, in line with the National Education Policy 2020, will proceed as scheduled in the remaining parts of the country. The exams are set to be held from May 21 to June 6.
“After contacting the state (Manipur) administration, it has been advised to keep all examinations in the state of Manipur from 29 May 2023 onwards,” the agency said in the statement.
The NTA said that as many as 3,697 candidates from Manipur had opted to appear for the test in the state.
“However, NTA has carefully reviewed the law-and-order situation in consultation with the state administration and contacted these candidates by telephone for asking their preferred city for the said examination. Some candidates who were not in Manipur or wanted to take the examination in another State/City are being allocated to other cities i.e., Delhi, Guwahati, etc. The option for a change of centre for candidates from Manipur is still available,” the agency said.
For candidates who have already received their admit cards for exams scheduled between May 21 and 24, as well as city intimation, slips for exams between May 25 and 28, the NTA has requested them to contact the agency if they wish to change their examination centres from Delhi, Guwahati, etc. to Imphal.
In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, temporary examination centres would be set up in the Kashmir region amid an unprecedented surge in the number of applications from the Union territory this year, the agency said.
University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar, who is monitoring the CUET with NTA, said, “Being sensitive to the needs of candidates and to facilitate the students of Jammu and Kashmir, the NTA is exploring the possibility of creating temporary centres in Kashmir. Therefore, it has been decided that the CUET (UG) will now be conducted from May 26, 2023 onwards in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir.”
HT on Thursday reported that the NTA was scrambling to arrange enough centres in J&K and Jharkhand due to the surge in CUET applications, forcing it to extend the last date for the exams till June 6 across the country.
Officials said 87,309 students from J&K have applied for the exam this year, more than six times last year’s count of 13,021. In Jharkhand, this number shot up nearly seven times, going from 26,497 to 178,630.
Kumar said the J&K administration is helping to set up new exam centres. “We are trying to give centres to maximum students appearing from J&K within the state. In the case of Delhi students, whose centres are in Meerut, we are also in the process of shifting as many as possible back to the NCR region,” he said.
