NU issues hall tickets sans students’ photograph

Nagpur: In another goof up, the Nagpur University's exam section issued hall tickets without photograph of the examinees for the ongoing winter examination. Teachers and invigilators have raised serious concerns over the missing photographs from the hall tickets saying that it had made their job to establish the identity of candidates difficult.

The exam section admitted that some hall tickets were issued without photographs but claimed that there was no scope for malpractices or proxy candidates appearing in place of original applicant.

The officials also informed that it was not the first time that student's photographs were not printed on hall tickets. "During the last exam, the photo of one student was printed on all hall tickets. It happened because of the college must have committed a mistake while uploading the photographs," the officials said.

Pro-Vice chancellor Pramod Yeole, who is handling the exam section, didn't answer to TOI's calls.

Director, Board of Examinations and Evaluation Neeraj Khaty attributed the problem to issues related uploading of photograph were encountered while processing the hall tickets. "But, we didn't want the students to suffer and proceeded without their images. If we had waited and asked the college for fresh photographs, the hall tickets would not have been prepared leading to the students missing the exam," Khaty said.

Khaty added that there was no scope for malpractices or anybody else appearing in place of the genuine students. "We have clearly stated on the hall tickets that a valid photo ID is must for appearing in the exam," he said.

Invigilators of exam centres where students turned up with photoless hall tickets countered Khaty saying there is not enough time to seek photo IDs and verify if the same student is appearing in the exam.

"There are two photographs to verify a student's identity. One is on the attendance sheet and the other on the hall tickets. But, at our centres, we were appalled to find that both there missing. Hardly any invigilator bothered to check other photo IDs," they said.

The issue came to fore after the winter examination commenced on October 3. As part of online reforms, the exam section has been delivering question papers and hall tickets online. From this year, the exam section is carrying forward the data filled by students during online enrolment.

NU officials cited the lack of photographs in enrolment data as one of the reasons for the problem in hall tickets.