CAP process begins, city colleges join under protest

Nagpur: On Saturday, the Std XI Common Admission Process (CAP) for 2020-21 was formally inaugurated online by school education minister Varsha Gaikwad. The event, though a mere formality, generated a lot of interest in here as over 20% of the participating colleges are doing so under protest. These 40-odd city colleges have approached the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court against CAP.
Since the matter is sub judice, petitioners did not want to speak on record. “We have questioned why CAP is limited to institutes within city limits. It gives those under Nagpur Metropolitan Development Regional Authority (NMRDA) an advantage. Here, coaching classes are full of students who have taken admission in colleges which are outside the city limits and which they attend only for practicals and exams,” said an academic.
That’s the reason some parties have approached the court “because now only the judiciary can set things right”. “We tried to put our point in front of education department so many times, but nobody heard us out,” the academic added.
Since there is no stay on the process, the education department has gone ahead the admission for this year. While inaugurating the CAP portal, Gaikwad said the current pandemic has forced everyone to adapt. “We will try to ensure that CAP is completely online with no physical interaction between stakeholders. Even the information booklet will be available online and payment too will be done through the site,” said Gaikwad.
The online CAP system is applicable only to colleges in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Amravati. In the last three years, an average of 18,000 seats have gone vacant in Nagpur city colleges.