Bathinda, April 11
In a move that has put a question mark over the career of thousands of students, Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, has decided to cancel all papers of the second and third semesters of the Master of Information Technology (M.Sc — IT) course.
Sources said the university took this step following reports from certain quarters that some papers had been leaked and students at some distance education centres of the university had got these before the examination. The sources said the leakage of the papers was confirmed only in the ‘C#’ (read as C sharp), when the police unearthed the leakage and got the paper before the start of the examination in Bathinda.
The sources said one of the papers of the second semester had also been ‘procured’ by the police one day prior to the scheduled date and four persons, two from Bathinda, one from Chandigarh and one from Sangrur, had been arrested. The papers were leaked from Hanumangarh (Rajasthan) and were sent to various contact persons using e-mail, who then sold these for a hefty price.
Interestingly, the leakage of papers had come as a help for a section of the students who had been unable to prepare well for the examinations, as the PTU had not sent them the required books. The PTU had returned the money charged from the students for the supply of study material and the prescribed books failed to cover the syllabus.
Neenu Jindal name changed, a student of a local PTU study centre, said she had joined this distance education course keeping in view the semester system, and had taken up a teaching job at a private school in the city to finance her M.Sc (IT). She added that the study centre held a two-hour daily practical-cum-theory class and a majority of the students had joined the course to improve their qualifications.
She said the move of the university had come as a rude shock for her. She said more than 50,000 students were on the rolls for the M.Sc IT course and they would be forced to move court in this regard. She alleged that news
reports had indicated that some senior functionaries were involved in this, but they had not been brought before the public, and innocent students were being penalised for no fault of theirs.
Anil Kumar name changed said it would be difficult for students like him to prepare for their exams again. He said they had advanced to the next semester (IV) and the paper that was leaked was scheduled for April 20, and now the university had decided to re-conduct all papers of semesters II and III. He said this had put a question mark over their career and job prospects.
Sources in a study centre said a letter in this connection had been received from the Registrar, but no new date sheet had been received. The sources said all four papers of M.Sc (IT) second semester and all three papers of the third semester had been cancelled. The sources said besides, the papers of ‘C and C+’ and RDMS development with Oracle (common to the PGDCA and M.Sc first semester) has also been cancelled.
Mr Y.S. Rajan, Vice-Chancellor, Mr S.K. Bhatia, Registrar, Mr Paramjit Singh, Assistant Registrar, PTU, could not be contacted despite repeated efforts.
Mr Jaspal Singh, Controller, Distance Education, refused to comment, saying that the matter was under the jurisdiction of the Controller of examinations.
Mr Kirpal Singh Kaler, Controller of Examinations, said the university had cancelled nine papers. He refused to give the details of these papers and said the required information had been sent to the five service providers, who dealt with such issues. He refused to confirm whether all papers of the second and third semesters had been cancelled.
