The Puducherry French Indians Rights Forum has registered its strong protest against the government’s move to conduct online counselling for selection of students through the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) for admission to various professional courses for this academic year.
Speaking to reporters, M. Ilango, former MLA and president of the Forum, said that online counselling would lead to chaos and confusion. The system would particularly affect students hailing from rural areas who don’t have Internet access at home.
Mr. Ilango said that access to information would also be limited and students from rural areas would only be guided by Internet centres.
The Government should abandon the move and continue with the conventional method of counselling. The Forum also demanded the government to initiate criminal action against students and parents who presented applications for counselling under CENTAC in Puducherry and Anna University in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
V. Balasubramaniam, president of Pondicherry State Students and Parents Welfare Association said the counselling schedule has to be notified as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
Several glitches
He said that there are several glitches in online counselling as the provisional allotment and selection list of candidates will be posted on the website after a week’s time. If the seats remained vacant even after September 30 the government would not be able to hold another round of counselling.
‘Access to information will be limited and students from rural areas will be guided by Internet centres during online counselling process’
