EAMCET tampers centre options!
Oct. 10: Tampering with the options provided by students in the recent Eamcet and Icet web-based counselling, has shown how vulnerable the internet based system is, and has shocked students, many of whom find they have been allotted seats in colleges they had never opted for.
The lower-rung staff at counselling centres in vari ous districts colluded with the managements of private engineering, MBA and MCA colleges to change the choice of colleges entered by students after getting their passwords.
These incidents of “options tampering” came to light in Kurnool, Kadapa, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, which have many engineering colleges.
Students, who have com plained to the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) that they have been allotted seats in colleges they have never even opted for, alleged that these colleges paid computer operators in counselling centres `5,000 to `20,000 for each seat they diverted.
The operators were appointed to assist students since a majority of Eamcet qualified students hail from rural areas and have no computer knowledge. Fifty students from Kurnool complained to the district collector that they have been allotted seats in colleges they had never opted for.
Shockingly, the tampering here happened in the counselling centre located in Rayalaseema University.
The collector has constituted a committee to inquire into the issue, but when nothing came from the inquiry, the students approached APSCHE seeking justice.
College managements have resorted to this cheating because the number of students who attended the counselling this year was much less than the seats that were on offer. As many as 1 lakh students skipped the Eamcet engineering counselling this year and half the number of Icet-qualified students stayed away from the counselling leaving colleges with very few students.
APSCHE officials, typically, went on the offensive and blamed students for disclosing their passwords to the operators.
“We have given specific written instructions to all the students in both Telugu and English not to disclose their passwords to anyone including their friends and relatives.
Unfortunately, some students disclosed their passwords to operators which might have enabled them to tamper with their options later,” said Prof.
Jayaprakash Rao, chairman, APSCHE.
He did however say that a thorough inquiry will be held and the guilty will not be spared.
Source : DC