Unable to pay fees, cash-strapped students miss exams

Some students of South Calcutta Polytechnic College alleged that they were restricted from sitting for examination in their college.

As those students could not deposit the required examination fee, the college authority stopped them from sitting for the examination. 

This is not a sole incident as since the sudden announcement of the demonetisation decision by the Centre, the students have been facing immense problems.

The students of the Baruipur-based College staged demonstration in front of their college gate, alleging the authority conducted the examination, without giving them the chance to sit for it.

However, the authority later assured the protesting students that they can appear in the examination at a later date.

“We were helpless. We could not withdraw the money from the ATMs. Some of us only got money from the bank. But most of us were unable to do so,” said some protesting students.

The demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes has affected students preparing for their upcoming semester exams.

The last date for filling online admission forms for the exams for Amit Kiran Banerjee, a final year engineering student who studies in a city based interior designing institute, was November 15.

The cash-strapped students are worried as to how they will deposit their fees. The amount of examination fees have gone up from Rs 200 to Rs 1,100.

The students enrolled at affiliated colleges and campuses are worried as they are unable to get cash for paying their exam fee.

Though the exam forms are online, the examination fee submission is in offline format in most of the cases and students are required to deposit it in their respective departments.

A first-year student of a private fashion technology college at Salt Lake said: “For submission of 

examination forms, I waited for almost two hours in a long queue at a bank. 

However, as the cash at the bank got over, I had to return empty handed. A few of my friends failed to exchange currency even after waiting for four hours. Considering the heavy rush in banks, the university authorities should extend the date for submission of exam forms.”