Students appearing in the final exams of their undergraduate courses under the North Bengal University (NBU) faced a technical glitch on the first day of the online exam on Thursday, forcing varsity authorities to rethink the mechanism of circulating question papers.

As hundreds of students sat at homes to write their papers, they found it tough to download the question paper from the varsity website.

“Question papers were uploaded only on the varsity website. The portal could not take the load when hundreds of students logged in at the same time to download questions. This led to delay and many students became tense as minutes ticked by,” said Biswajit Sarkar, a former general secretary of the students’ union of Siliguri College.

Sources said according to the University Grants Commission norms, the question papers of each online exam should be uploaded on the website of a university 15 minutes before the start of the exam.

Later on Thursday, NBU authorities came up with a new plan to resolve the problem. “To make the exam process easier, it has been decided that from tomorrow (Friday), question papers would also be made available on websites of all affiliated colleges, along with the varsity’s official website,” said an NBU source.

Marks-for-cash probe

A faculty member of Siliguri College, Amitava Kanjilal, accused of promising an undergraduate student high marks in lieu of money, appeared on Thursday before an inquiry committee constituted by the college to probe into the allegation. Earlier, he had been served a showcause by college authorities. Kanjilal spoke to inquiry panel but not to the media. A member of the committee said they would soon prepare a report and submit it to the college governing body.