At Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBABU) MJK college, candidates were forced to write their papers using their mobile phones’ lights on 12th April morning.
This happened half-an-hour later when the exams for the Modern Indian language (MLA) began at the college which is situated within Bettiah, the headquarters of West Champaran, about 220 km north of Patna. There was a power cut at around 9:30 am when the entire exam hall went into darkness. As there was no option and power could not be restored immediately, there were protests in the hall and some candidates started using mobile phone lights to write their papers.
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One of the candidates said on conditions of anonymity that there was a huge crowd at the centre as the MIL paper is common for all candidates. The exam hall was dark and there was no option for the students. The room was suffocating and many students had to shift to the other rooms, and some went to labs to write their exams.
Staff associated with MJK College did admit their negligence privately. But they attributed it to the space crunch due to the occupation space for Lok Sabha elections.
There was a lot of rush of examinees for the exam and since they anticipated a space crunch, they thought of shifting the examinees to a different centre but this centre didn’t accept the request and they had to conduct the exams in a room where the windows and ventilators were totally covered for elections, a staff member said.
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The principal of MJK College, Dr. HN Thakur said admitted that there was a power trip in the middle of the exam but it was immediately restored and the exam went on normally.