J&K Students Association today urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to establish exam centres of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), Delhi University and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for Kashmiri students in Srinagar for the entrance examination to be conducted from July.
In a statement, spokesperson of the Association, Nasir Khuehami said that hundreds of students from Kashmir Valley are appearing in the entrance examination for 2021-2022 in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University (DU), Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
“The problem is that students from Kashmir have their centres in Delhi and Aligarh. The present circumstances of Covid-19 could prove fatal for the aspirants. The students said that it is not possible for them to afford air tickets to travel to other states and appear in exams. Most of the students are hailing from marganilised communities.”
He said that, amid the pandemic as people are avoiding travelling especially inter-state fearing contagion, the students demand an examination centre in the Kashmir Valley. “Parents said that their wards are being compelled to travel for appearing in upcoming examinations. As the exams will be conducted from next month, many students fear contagion in travel and are giving second thoughts to travelling. It is going to be a lot of a hassle for students to travel to Delhi and other places when most of the students are not vaccinated as yet and on top of it the 3rd wave is impending,” he added
He said that these Universities have not announced exam centre at Srinagar for the Kashmiri students yet. “Despite pandemic, no centre has been allotted to Kashmir by these Universities leaving the students high and dry. The students and their parents are concerned to travel to Delhi and other places outside keeping the spread of COVID-19 in mind. The students and their parents have requested the authorities to set up an examination centre in Valley as it will resolve all the problems. Parents said that the examination centres are outside Kashmir. It’s not feasible to take risk due to the ongoing pandemic,” he said.
JKSA Secretary Davood Ahmad said that, it will be very inconvenient for the Kashmiri students to travel all the way and spend money on accommodation in other states if their examination centres are not arranged locally. “This is a grave situation especially for the students belonging to the average income group who can’t afford the travel and accommodation expenses,” he said.
He requested LG Sinha to urgently look into the matter and kindly establish an alternative exam centre for Kashmiri students in Srinagar for the entrance exam, “otherwise a large number of the students may miss the examination if the centre is not set up in Valley”. “We are requesting Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to take initiatives with the respective stake-holders in these University Administrations’ to establish its centres in Srinagar. We hope that J&K Lieutenant Governor will take up this issue at the appropriate level.”
