Delay in commencement of verification of certificates due to power failure during the previous day, Internet connection not available till almost noon caused a lot of inconvenience to the candidates who turned up at the Dr. Ambedkar Auditorium on the Andhra University College of Engineering premises here on Monday for the first step of admission into PG programmes of AU and Dr. Ambedkar University of Srikakulam and five-year degree programmes of AU. Continuous drizzle till afternoon added to their miseries.
AU introduced web counselling and established helpline centres at Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Kakinada and Vijayawada for certificate verification and issue of scratch card to rank holders of AUCET- 2014 and AU Engineering Entrance Test 2014. Manual verification of certificates for candidates under categories such as NCC, children of armed forces personnel, NSS, sports and physically challenged was done here on Saturday and Sunday.
For the first day top 500 rankers of five-year integrated courses, life sciences, mathematical sciences, chemical sciences, geology, humanities and social sciences and Telugu tests were called but most of them, including many from Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, turned up at the AU helpline centre. They reached the venue at 9 a.m. but the server was down till 12.20 p.m. and certificate verification started at 12.45 p.m., said father of one of the candidates. At 11.20 a.m. the officials announced that 250 to 500 rankers could come after lunch.
But with only five persons doing the certificate verification the process was slow and at 7 p.m., only the first 100 rankers could be cleared, he added. Water was supplied in the morning but lunch or snacks and tea were not available near the venue. The auditorium could accommodate around 300 but around 2,500 turned up. Seats were in bad shape and the fans did not function, he complained.
