Nilamber-Pitamber University, Daltonganj, will be holding pen and paper (offline) examinations for the terminal semester students of graduate and postgraduate courses.

Sources said there will be promotional facilities for students for other semesters and courses.

NPU vice-chancellor Ram Lakhan Singh told The Telegraph Online, “Our university has territorial jurisdiction in three districts Latehar, Garhwa and Palamau. Various students’ bodies and parents have told us about poor cellular network in many parts of these districts. We cannot afford to conduct online examinations here.”

Signal reception is quite poor in various parts of the districts concerned. In Bhandarya and Badgad of Garhwa district, people have to go near a graveyard to get good phone connectivity.

Similarly, there are locations in Garu and Chhipadohar in Latehar district where people either climb a hillock or tree for getting a strong signal on their phones.

In Palamau district, there are areas in Chetma and Dagra, where cell phone network comes after several attempts and only for a fraction of a second.

SP Palamau Ajay Linda too has conceded: “There are locations in this Palamau police range where getting a cell phone signal is a horrendous task.”

Keeping these problems in mind, VC Singh said, “We will definitely go for pen-paper mode of examinations and nothing else.”

The UGC had on July 6 issued updated guidelines for conducting examinations in universities and set September end as the concluding month for the terminal semester and terminal final year exams.

Singh said, “We have been conveying to our students to get ready for pen and paper examination and not to bother their parents for any state of the art cell phones.”

Sources said NPU is also mulling over to discard swapping of examination centres. Usually, students have to appear for their examination in a different college of the university rather than at the colleges they are enrolled, i.e. their home centres.

The VC said, “We are yet to take a final call on it as to whether centres should be swapped or exams be held at home centres.”

“Fixing of examination centres is a very important thing for the examination board of a university. Our board will sit and take a decision in this regard,” Singh, who is also the chairman of the board, said.