Following mid-day's report about how the Mumbai University asked students in Devgad to travel 500 km on the day of their viva, officials release new schedule
mid-day's Aug 14 report on the students being summoned to Kalina for the exam
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On the very day mid-day highlighted the plight of students in Devgad who had been asked to travel 500 km to appear for their viva voce in Kalina, Mumbai University (MU) has now assigned a new centre within 50 km of the students' college.
This paper had reported that for the first time, students from S H Kelkar college in Devgad were asked to travel all the way to the Kalina campus to appear for the viva voce for the MA programme in Rural Development.
The students were worried they would have to take leave from their jobs to travel to Mumbai for the exam. Representation pic
Another notice
Hours after mid-day's report was published on August 14, the college received another notice from the varsity, informing that exam centre had been shifted to a much closer institute.
Also read - Mumbai University horror: Students asked to give exam 500 km away in Kalina 30 mins after it starts
"By 5 pm on August 14, our coordinator received a letter from the varsity, informing that the exam centre had been changed from Kalina to Kankavli college, which is just 50 km away from Devgad," said Dr Gurudev Parvekar, principal of S H Kelkar college.
The students will now appear for the oral examination on August 16, and the change in centres has come as a huge relief to them. The journey from Devgad to Kalina takes 10-12 hours. As reported earlier, most of the students hold part-time jobs and would have had to take two days' leave to be able to travel to Mumbai for the exam.
'Didn't expect it'
As many as 40 candidates had already appeared for the exam at the Kalina centre, and the Devgad students were worried that the centre would not be changed for just the nine of them. "After making an appeal to the university to change the centre, we arranged a van to take the students and three professors to Kalina for the exam. We have cancelled the van now," said Baban M Khamkar, professor of the MA course in Rural Development.
Big relief
"I did not think the university would change the centre just for nine students," said Mahesh Mestry, one of the MA students.
"It is a big relief for us. Due to the short notice from the university, I didn't get leave from work to go to Mumbai for the exam. I work in Kankavli, so now I can go to office after my viva," said Aniket Gavali, who works in a pathology clinic.
Officials didn't know
This eleventh-hour miracle came about after the centre was changed by Vinayak Dalvi, officer on special duty for MA in Rural Development. He told this reporter that he was clueless about the plight of the students till Sunday. "On August 13, I received a call from several authorities at the university, including former senate member Mahadeo Jagtap, after which I instructed the controller of examinations to change the centre," he said.
Jagtap, who had called the official, said, "It made no sense for the university to call the students to another district just for a viva voce. If students wouldn't have appealed to the varsity, they would not even have realised their mistake."
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