27 July,2011 07:23 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan and Nikhil Mane
Complaint centre set up for FYJC admissions gets over 200 applications concerning college allotment
Students and parents swarmed junior colleges in the city and Pimpri-Chinchwad on the first day of admissions.u00a0
Long queues, discontentment with the colleges allotted, traffic jams, parking issues; the countenances fraught with anguish were visible to anybody willing to see. In some colleges though, parents appeared to be satisfied with the arrangements. Here's what we saw.
Anxious moments: Parents, students flocked to colleges on Day 1 of
FYJC admissions. Pic/Krunal Gosavi
Long queues
The long queues stretched on for hours in most colleges and upset parents were seen complaining about the mismanagement by the college authorities. Though Fergusson College had made available its admission forms online and had also put up notices about the documents required, fees, among others, there were limited counters to accept the fees and forms which parents said was the major problem.
"We have been waiting in the queue since 10 am in the morning. First, we had to download the forms and fill them up. Then stand in the queue to get the form checked and later get into another queue to submit them. Why couldn't the college authorities put up more counters if they knew the rush would be so much?" said a parent who worked in a private bank.
Another parent who had come from Latur for his daughter's admission in science faculty complained that he had trouble locating a cyber cafe to download the online admission form. Parents complained that there were no seating arrangements too and they had to stand in the scorching heat or had to sprawl out in the lawns under the trees.
At Seth Parashurambhau College, there was only one counter to accept the forms from thousands of parents. "The management is extremely bad and even I have been an ex-student of this college as things haven't changed in 20 years. We could see people sitting in same office behind this clerk and whiling their time. So why couldn't the college keep more manpower to collect forms?" asked an irate parent.
At Modern College too, the queue stretched on to the road and Principal Rajendra Zunjarrao said that it couldn't be helped. "We have 10 divisions which means hundreds of students. Even if I keep 10 counters, there will still be a crowd," he said. Parents said despite waiting for hours in the queue, their student's admission wasn't done and that college should have conducted the admission faculty-wise instead.
Traffic woes
Besides queues, parents also had to contend with traffic jams on roads leading up to the colleges and absence of parking spaces. "In the morning, the lane leading up to the college was packed and I wasted a lot of time just getting here. Once here, there was no parking inside the campus and I had to park my vehicle on the road. Many other parents had parked their cars and two-wheelers too, which also led to traffic congestion," said a parent at SP college on Tilak road. Though parents slammed most colleges for the poor arrangements, some institutes came out with flying colours.
At Nowrosjee Wadia College, most parents seemed happy with the arrangements as there were shorter queues and also many counters to accept the forms. "There were four different counters depending on faculty and granted and non-granted seats. There was even a counter for counselling," said a parent. Even when MiD DAY visited the college around 2.30pm, there were just a few people to submit the forms.
Complaints abound
The complaint centre set up by the centralised admission committee was flooded with complaints from students. Most students wanted a change of college as they weren't happy with the allotted college and wanted to know if they could wait for the first waiting list. "We received over 200 applications from students. On Thursday evening, we will reply to them and allot another college if found valid," said Rekha Palshikar, vice-principal of Fergusson College.
