JEE aspirants struggle

BHUBANESWAR:  The two-day nation-wide trade union strike caused inconvenience to the students who appeared the National Testing Agency (NTA)-conducted Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main-2019 in the State on Tuesday.The JEE main was conducted at 273 centres across the country, including nine in Odisha. In the State, the centres are located at Bhubaneswar, Angul, Balasore, Berhampur, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jeypore, Rourkela and Sambalpur.

With buses, auto-rickshaws and taxis remaining off the road several students from outside faced trouble in reaching examination centres. In the Capital, some students had reached the city on Monday night so as not to miss the exam while others reached the centres by 6 am, nearly three hours before the scheduled time to avoid the protestors.

The JEE Main is being conducted in two sittings. The first sitting is from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm and second sitting from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm. The entrance exam will continue till January 12. While paper II of the test for BArch and BPlan courses was conducted on the day, paper I for BTech will be held from January 9 to January 12. Around 39,000 students from Odisha are writing the exam.

“As the trade union protest will continue for the second day on Wednesday, we have decided to stay at a place close to the examination centre,” said a group of students from Khurda. National Testing Agency is conducting the test for the first time. This year the JEE Main will be held twice. Students not able to secure good score in the first-phase will be allowed to sit for the second phase in April, sources said.