Krishnanagar, Aug 21: Five students were denied admission to a college. Their fault: they had Hindi instead of Bengali as one of their language papers in their Plus Two curriculum. In gross violation of the admission rules of Kalyani University, one of the colleges affiliated to it, Krishnanagar Government College, denied admission to these five students in undergraduate honours courses. The college authorities refused to comply with the instructions of the registrar and vice-chancellor to go by the rules, which state that students who had passed Plus Two with English and any one of five modern Indian languages would be eligible for admission. The college authorities have, however, said that the issue will be discussed at the admission committee meeting on Thursday.
In order not to lose an entire academic year, the five students have now got admitted in another college, also under Kalyani University.
Aniruddha Kar, Priyanka Sinha and Moumita Guha, all students of Krishnanagar Academy, passed this year’s Class 12 examination conducted by the ISC Board. They applied for admission in undergraduate course in physics at Krishnanagar Government College. Their names figured at the top of the merit list and they were called for counselling. On August 4, after counselling, their applications were rejected during registration when the college authorities found that they had Hindi at the Plus 2 level. Repeated persuasion failed to convince the college authorities and they stuck to the guideline set in the prospectus. Last year the same college had admitted students in a similar situation. The prospectus says that only students with a minimum of 45 per cent marks in English and Bengali, along with other subjects, would be eligible for admission in honours courses.
Principal Subhasish Dutta, said: “The prospectus has been framed according to the existing admission rules set by Kalyani University.” But the students alleged that the guidelines in the prospectus violate the university’s admission norms. The admission rules 1999-2000 of Kalyani University clearly states that students who pass the Higher Secondary or any equivalent examination with English and any one of five modern Indian languages would be eligible for admission in the honours courses.
The college authorities insist that candidates who did not know Bengali would not be admitted. Mr Dutta said: “How can we allow a student who has to opt for Bengali as the compulsory paper when he or she does not know the language?” The students approached the registrar of Kalyani University, Mr Mihir Biswas, on August 6, who instructed the college to go by the rules. The students alleged that the principal refused to accept the letter. Later they appealed to the vice-chancellor, who gave similar instructions, but that too drew no response. The principal, Mr Dutta, said he had no instructions from the university authorities, and added: “Jaa korechi aain menei korechi (I went strictly by the rules).”
The vice-chancellor, Dr Nityananda Saha, surprisingly told The Asian Age: “I can do very little if a college refuses to admit students on such a ground.” He added, though, that the matter would be looked into when a specific complaint was received.