CHENNAI: Hundreds of students attending the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) 2017, which is underway in Anna University, are experiencing hardship due to lack of basic amenities such as drinking water and toilets.
On Wednesday, counselling was held for differently-abled and the university has made no special arrangements to make their stay disabled-friendly.
Parents and students were in total disarray with common counselling room, which enables students to check the status of seats in colleges, yet to be set up. Another common complaint was that not enough seating arrangements were made.
When contacted, a top official of Anna University claimed that the government had announced the schedule for engineering counselling at short notice, that is, just a week ago, unlike previous years when at least one-month advance notification was issued to make the necessary arrangements.
“Because of the confusion surrounding NEET, the government was unsure of the schedule of engineering counselling. The dates were announced with just a week remaining. Whatever we could do has been arranged,” he said. Besides the counselling process for differently-abled category, the sports quota certificate verification was also conducted on Wednesday, seeing an increase in influx of students.
K Vignarajan, a student, said not even a digital display board to check the status of the colleges has been provided.
G Subhashini, who visited the campus previously for her sister’s counselling, said the arrangements made in the past were a lot better. Further, the parents pointed out that drinking water being supplied was not potable.
Parents also alleged that educational loan stall was still being set up. “We wanted to inquire about the educational loans but the stalls have not been set up. There are many people from rural areas who needed assistance,” a parent said.
Seats allotted for differently-abled students
In all 233 diff-abled candidates called, 162 were allotted seats, while 62 were absent and 9 skipped
For the hearing-impaired category, 25 were called and 20 were allotted
For the visually impaired category, 30 were called and 24 allotted, four absent and two skipped
For orthopaedic candidates, 178 students were called, 118 allotted, 54 absent and six skipped the counselling