While the Anna University in Tamil Nadu had begun the distribution of applications for technical courses on Monday, there was still no indication from the Centralised Admissions Committee (CENTAC) here as to when the admission process to engineering and medical courses would be initiated in the Union Territory.
Parents and students who spoke to The Hindu on Monday said that they fear a repeat of the scenario that prevailed last year, when a delayed start to the process, and various other reasons, resulted in the completion of admissions only on September 30, the statutory date before which the process should be completed as per Supreme Court directions.
According to S. Kaushik Vishwanathan, who had just completed Class XII from a school in Lawspet, the delay in the counselling process puts students like him at a disadvantage, as they would also like to apply to arts and science colleges in places like Chennai, if their prospects of securing a seat in a good engineering college was not very bright.
“The sooner they finish the application process, the easier it would be for me to check if I could get a seat in a good college as the cut-off marks would come out. The delay spoils my chances of securing admissions in places like Chennai as the competition there is very high and seats get filled up quickly,” he said.
Though the CENTAC website had put up tentative dates for the admissions in late April, the document has since been removed as the committee could not keep up with the schedule. When asked why there was no information regarding the timeframe for the admissions, officials at CENTAC said that they had submitted all the necessary papers to the government and were awaiting approval.
Further, the officials said that unlike neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the number of applications that has to be processed in the Union Territory was “very small.” “Even if the applications were released immediately, the students won't be able to submit it as they would receive the mark sheets of Class XII only on May 25,” they said.
Regarding cut-off marks, the officials said they were not in a position to “speculate” now.
