Robbers take down portal, students left in lurch

While admissions to Delhi University (DU) are at its peak, the online process came to halt for hours on Monday morning, this time not because of any "overload" on its server but due to loss of internet network in the university and adjoining areas leaving aspirants in despair.

The network went down as 200 metre of optical fibre cable providing internet connectivity to  the university was found missing near Vishwavidyalaya metro station area. According to DU officials the fibre was allegedly stolen by robbers.

Monday being the second day of admission against the third cut-off which was announced on Saturday, quite a good rush was witnessed both for taking admissions and making cancellations.

However, students were left worried as they were not able to download their admission application form nor were able to pay the fees on the DU portal. The chaos which started in the morning lasted till 1 pm in the afternoon until the issue is resolved and the connection was resumed.

According to Sanjeev Singh, Director, Delhi University Computer Centre (DUCC) only "intranet" worked while the "internet" network went down.

"The colleges were able to do the admission and send the data as the intranet which is our internal network was still at work. However, the internet was not working as result students were not able to download admission application form nor were able to pay the fees as the fee gateway is also outside the purview of university's internal network," said Sanjeev Singh. Only those students who downloaded their form by 4 am were able to take admissions.

Keeping in view the precious loss of time at the peak of admission process the DU has decided to extend the admission process by a day. Thus the admissions against the third cut-off slated to end on Tuesday will now last till Wednesday.

The DU has brought the incident to the notice of National Informatics Centre (NIC) and RailTel, said DU official.