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Engineering entrance paper leaks; students, parents upset

May 01, 2011 16:20 IST

The All India Engineering Entrance Examination, which was to be held on Sunday, was postponed for a few hours after the question paper was reported to be leaked.

The Central Board for Secondary Education postponed the two exams on Sunday by a few hours after it found that the question papers were being leaked in a major way primarily in two states -- Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The first paper, which was supposed to initially start at 9.30 am, began at noon as authorities revised the question papers.

Consequently, the second paper that was supposed to begin at 2 pm will now start at 7 pm. This is the first time that the exams are being held online.

It was reported that a day prior to the exams, questions papers were being sold openly in at least one city in Uttar Pradesh.

Over 12 lakh students are appearing for the exams that are being held at over 1,600 centres in more than 80 cities.

Ulhasnagar resident Sushmita Waghela's son Uday, who is appearing for the exams, said: "I got a call from my son shortly before he was to write the first paper informing that the exams had been postponed; he sounded very stressed. As it is students face a lot of pressure and now they have to go through this."

Another parent, Sudhakaran Nair from Thane, said, "Why can't the authorities take strong action? My daughter Dipty was already quite nervous and feared whether the second of questions would be tougher than the one that was earlier framed."

AIEEE exams are conducted to secure admissions to insitututes like National Institute of Technology and other engineering colleges in the country. The exams are usually held on the fourth week of April each year.
N Ganesh in Mumbai