Students of Himachal Pradesh University in Fix Over One Test Centre for JRF-NET Exam

Students from Himachal Pradesh appearing for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and National Eligibility Test (NET) exam have to appear at one allocated centre at Shimla causing tremendous difficulties for candidates hailing from far off areas of the state. This is in spite of the fact that HP has the highest number of students qualifying the JRF& NET exam of UGC.

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Pratim Rama, a student from Lahaul Spiti, doing his Masters through correspondence course said that he has to travel around 405 km to Shimla to take the UGC NET exam. It takes two days to reach the centre. He demands a centre in Kullu as a resolution to this problem faced by him and other candidates.

Another student hailing from Mandi said that when she took her JRF test in Shimla, she had to reach the town a day before the test. So just before the exam, students have to make an extra effort of arranging for their travel, food and lodging, at the same time, prepare for the exam.

Students travelling from far off areas have to face lots of problems due to unavailability of an easy mode of travelling, as the hilly areas of the state are not well connected with Shimla. These students demand that there should be another centre in other parts of the state.

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Several students' union bodies have expressed their surprise and disappointment over the inability of the state government to establish multiple exam centres in the state. A spokesperson of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), HPU unit said that state government and the university have not been able to organise a centre for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) test in Himachal Pradesh and students of the state have to travel Chandigarh to take the exam. The University boasts of getting A grade accreditation by NAAC but its students are denied the basic facility of an exam centre.

Pankaj Lalit, Registrar of HPU said that he has no idea why the university has no centre for CSIR test and one centre only for the UGC test. He added that the authorities of the HPU should have requested UGC and CSIR regarding centres but nevertheless, now they would have to find a solution to this problem.