A screenshot of the message displayed after logging into http://www.ropune.org
WITH THE admission season for most undergraduate courses underway across the state, students wishing to get information — regarding admission schedule and notices and rules for college transfer applications — found the website of the Directorate of Technical Education, Pune, “suspended” on Monday.
It is unclear how long the website was unavailable between Sunday evening and Monday. The Indian Express found the website not working till Monday afternoon. It became functional only after the matter was brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.
The Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra, controls admissions to all technical courses, including Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Computer Application, Masters and Bachelor of Engineering, M.Tech, Hotel Management and Catering Technology courses, Architecture, Pharmacy and post SSC and HSC diplomas.
Since the results of most board exams, as well as entrance tests, were declared recently, admissions are currently underway across the state. In such a situation, the websites of the education directorates play an important role in giving out information to students.
On Monday afternoon, when Newsline tried to access the website of the Pune regional office of the DTE, the website displayed a message: “This website has been suspended. You need to contact the service provider for reason of suspension and get the website activated again”.
When contacted, D D Nandanwar, the joint director, technical education, said he was unaware of the issue and would check immediately. Later, he confirmed that the website had been suspended and promised to get it re-activated immediately. As the error was rectified by afternoon, Nandanwar said he was not aware why the website was unavailable. “The technical team maintains the website. I did not know that it was not working. They said some maintenance was being done.”