Calcutta University had to change centres of the semester exams as the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), which had been sent to the state for the Lok Sabha polls, did not vacate collegesin time.
The BA and BSc sixth-semester exams started on July 5 and will continue till July 15.
Jayanta Sinha, the university’s controller of examinations, said in a notice last week that the new centres of hundreds of students of Maharani Kasiswari College, Scottish Church College and Khudiram Bose Central College, who were to write their exams at City College, were Scottish Church College, Gurudas College and Acharya Girish Chandra Bose College, respectively, as the central force left the colleges only after the exams had started.
Students of Victoria Institution College and Bethune College, who were to write their papers at Vidyasagar College, had their centres shifted to other institutions.
The examination centre for students of New Alipore College has been shifted from Panchur College in Santoshpur, South 24-Parganas, to Asutosh College.
“The controller of examination met the officials of the Election Commission of India and wrote to the state’s chief secretary so steps could be taken to remove the central force before the exams started. It is unfortunate that we had to shift the students to other centres as the force did not vacate the premises in time,” CU registrar Debasis Das told Metro.
Central forces had been deployed in the state in March to maintain law and order during the Lok Sabha polls, which ended on June 1.
Their stay was extended by the commission after the results were declared on June 4 to contain post-poll violence.
As the presence of the force came in the way of conducting classes in schools and colleges, a PIL was filed in Calcutta High Court.
A CU official said the high court had ordered that the force could not stay beyond June 27.
Syamalendu Chatterjee, president, All Bengal Principals’ Council, said it was surprising that CAPF continued to stay even after the high court order.
Sital Prasad Chattopadhyay, the principal of City College on Amherst Street, in north Calcutta, said the force left on July 5.
Tarun Kanti Halder, the teacher-in-charge of Panchur College, said the central force vacated the college on July 7.
“We have a capacity to conduct an examination for around 1,200 students. But as the central force stayed till July 5, we could not use the entire premises to hold the exams. So, 500 students are writing the exams. The benches in many of the classrooms were damaged during thecentral force’s stay from May 27 to July 5. So we told the university to scale down the capacity,” said the principal of City College.
“The central force had initially said they would leave by July 3 but they had todefer their departure following cancellation of train tickets. They finally left on July 7,” said the teacher-in-charge of Panchur College.
