Srinagar, Feb 18: The inordinate delay by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) in completing the selection process has left hundreds of students high and dry.
The NEET Undergraduate-2021 exam was held in September 2021 which was otherwise supposed to be held in April-May last year.
The result of the NEET UG-2021 was declared in November 2021.
Since then the BOPEE has failed to complete the selection process which has put the career of hundreds of students at stake.
After the declaration of the result, the selection process got delayed for two months due to a PIL filed in the Supreme Court against the implementation of 10 percent reservation under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.
The BOPEE invited online applications for the first counselling on January 12, 2022, and was closed on January 17. The tentative merit list was declared on January 24, 2022, and applications for college preference were invited from February 2 to 5.
“Despite the passage of around two weeks, the BOPEE has not notified the college allotment list,” a student said.
The delay by BOPEE in the allotment of colleges to the students has cost the students dearly.
“We have already given our preferences but BOPEE is delaying the further process for unknown reasons,” the students said.
They accused the BOPEE authorities of adopting the lackadaisical approach in the allotment of colleges.
“The students in other states have already appeared in the first round of counselling and are likely to appear in the second and third rounds of counselling now. They are already ahead of us. Those students will soon join their colleges but we are yet to appear in the first round of counselling,” a student said.
Besides the students, parents are anxious about the future of their wards who passed the NEET-UG exams.
“The BOPEE authorities are playing with the future of the students. They are caught in confusion over the allotment of seats to students from EWS which has delayed the counselling of the students,” said Nazir Ahmad, a parent from Srinagar. “The government should take the matter seriously and start counselling of the students.”
The tenure of the former BOPEE chairman ended on December 13 following which the Additional Chief Secretary Vivek Bharadwaj was made in-charge chairman BOPEE in addition to his duties.
“The government was already aware of the expiry of the term of the former BOPEE chairman but instead of doing some proper exercise for the appointment of the new chairman, they appointed an in-charge chairman for it,” an official said.
Aghast at the delay, the parents said that the delay in holding counselling of students speaks volumes about the seriousness of the government about the future of the aspiring MBBS students.
“It seems that the officers at the helm of affairs are not serious about the future of the students,” they said.
A top official said that the counselling was delayed due to some issues concerning the allotment of seats to EWS.
“It took us some time to resolve the issue and it is expected that the further process will start soon,” the official said.
Advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor (LG), Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar when contacted over the matter, told that the counseling will start from mid-next week.
“I have talked to the concerned people and the counseling will hopefully start from next Wednesday,” he said.