Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday talked to education minister and sought more centres in the J&K for CUET exams.
“Discussed the matter relating to exam centres for the scheduled Common University Entrance Test (CUET) with Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan and requested him for CUET centres in J&K UT. He has assured the issue will be addressed on priority,” the office of LG said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, hundreds of students from Kashmir appearing in the Common University Entrance Test on May 25, 26, 27 and 28, are distressed over the fact that they have been allotted examination centres hundreds of kilometres from their hometowns, and in several cases, outside Jammu and Kashmir altogether.
There have been protests against the National Testing Agency, which is conducting the CUET, in the Valley since the centres were allotted three days ago.
Around 80,000 students have applied for the CUET exam from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The CUET is a newly introduced all-India test for admission to various undergraduate, integrated, postgraduate, diploma, certification courses and research programmes in 45 central universities of India.
It is an essential step in higher education. However, now, school-leaving students who belong to poorer families are left staring at significant expenses to travel to exam centres.
Abrar Ahmad Mir from North Kashmir’s Kupwara district said he would have preferred to write the exam from his hometown, which is 100 kilometres from Srinagar. But because options were limited, Mir finalised Srinagar and an exam centre in Baramulla district.
“Now I am shocked to see that my centre was allocated outside J&K,” Mir said. Patiala, from where Mir is supposed to write the exam, is 660 kilometres away.
The students whose centres have been allotted outside J&K said that they will now have to arrange to reach venues two or three days prior to the exam date to look for the centre, and arrange for accommodation and food.
The whole exercise is likely to cost in the thousands.
Mir’s father, who is a labourer, said that he simply could not afford such travel expenses. Mir feels he has no option but to skip the exam and watch his career get ruined unless his exam centre is re-allocated to a closer venue.

KR Desk