3 days ago
No CET outside Maharashtra: Minister
MUMBAI:
MUMBAI: From next year, students from outside Maharashtra taking the Common Entrance Test (CET) for any course offered by an institution in the state will have to travel to an examination centre in the state. The CET is essential for admission to professional courses such as engineering, pharmacy, law etc.
Addressing the media on Thursday, higher and technical education minister, Chandrakant Patil, said this decision was taken to prevent malpractices in the exam. Citing an example, he noted the results of the five-year law entrance exam, announced on Wednesday night. They revealed that four students from a single exam centre in Patna secured 100 percentile. Three of the students had taken the exam in the morning session on April 28 and the fourth in the second session. The examination centre will now be investigated for suspected irregularities. 'The investigation will be handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID),' said Patil.
The admission process for various courses is implemented through more than 16 entrance exams in coordination with the Admission Regulatory Authority (ARA) and the CET Cell. Every year, more than 1 million students take the CET for admission to various courses, of which more than 25,000 students take the exam at centres outside the state.
The Mumbai Crime Branch had taken action in March last year against an admission racket that was extracting money from students by tempting them to raise their percentile in the CET exam conducted for admission to various courses. The police had arrested three people from Delhi.
Against this backdrop, the state higher and technical education department has decided to close examination centres outside the state from next year.
