By IANS
Bangalore : Karnataka’s universities are wrestling with a new headache: they have to return 28,000 demand drafts of Rs.400 each and the exercise will cost them a staggering Rs.840,000.
The demand drafts had been sent to seven universities as fee for an entrance test for post-graduation courses that was to be conducted for the first time on July 20. All these years, admission to post-graduate courses was based on the marks scored at the graduate level.
The test was cancelled after opposition from parents, students, academicians and political parties – leaving the universities with an unenviable task of refunding the fee.
Demand drafts are not normally sent by ordinary post for fear of loss in transit. Thus, the universities will have to despatch them by either registered post or Speed Post.
This will cost Rs.30 per demand draft – a total of Rs.840,000.
Besides this expenditure, the universities will now have draw up a new schedule for admitting students to post-graduate courses and students will have to go back to these institutions to get the forms and complete other formalities.
“It’s twice the amount of normal work and an additional financial burden on the universities too,” said a senior official of Bangalore University, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The University of Mysore is the worst hit by the cancellation of the test as it was appointed as the nodal agency to conduct it. It had spent, according to university sources, around Rs.2.5 million to produce brochures and other test related materials.