BHUBANESWAR: With the official date for sale of application forms for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) coming to a close on Thursday, there is huge uproar about scarcity of the forms in the market.
There were reports that forms vanished at least a week before Holi in the Capital City. There were similar reports from other parts of the State.
This year when the JEE Committee announced the schedule well in advance, the purpose was to give candidates more time to think and apply. Forms were sold offline, at banks and different counters. There was provision for online application too.
According to reports, JEE had already sold over 80,000 forms offline by Wednesday while another 11,000 candidates bought it online taking the total number of applications sold at a little over 91,000. The number is higher than in 2011.
“However, there have been reports from across the State about form scarcity. This happened because the JEE did not print enough number of forms,” honorary secretary of Orissa Private Engineering Colleges Association Binod Dash says.
Dash argues that JEE had assured to print 2.5 times the number of applications made last year. If the application figure in 2011 was about 85,000, JEE Committee was to print close to two lakh forms and the officials had given their word in the last Policy Planning Body, he says.
The claim of shortage, however, is refuted by JEE Committee. Vice-Chairman Sitaram Mohapatra said, the Committee had printed one lakh forms and 19,000 forms are still available. “Where is the question of shortage? Besides, candidates can always apply online,” he said.
Dash counters and says that since the forms were sold across about 200 counters, each got about 500 forms which was inadequate.
The JEE Committee, which is flush with funds, should have gone in for more forms to ease the pressure, he added.