Govt arranges special flight for GATE aspirants
Second batch of aspirants claim to be left out
Srinagar: After facing criticism for ignoring the students demand to have separate exam centre for GATE in Kashmir, the state administration arranged a special flight of Indian Air force for the GATE aspirants of Kashmir.
The aspirants have to appear in the exam on February 09 and 10 for which the centres for Kashmiri students have been set up in Jammu division, causing inconvenience to the students.
The state government on Friday arranged separate flights for these aspirants who were stranded in Kashmir due to continuous closure of Jammu-Srinagar highway and cancellation of their flights during the past few days.
Briefing about the arrangements, additional deputy commissioner BudgamKhursheed Ahmad who was appointed as nodal officer, said a group of 180 students was accommodated in the flight while as left out students will be accommodated in a separate flight. “180 students have boarded the flight,” he said.
Meanwhile, assistant commissioner in the office of Divisional Commissioner, QaziIrfan said around 400 students had registered with divisional administration for special arrangement by the administration.
“We have taken up the matter with higher ups and another flight will be arranged for left out students,” he said.
The second group of students who have reached the Airport however, said the administration didn’t arrange any flight for them.
“We reached here in early afternoon But no flight landed here for us. Now we have been left to fend for ourselves,” said an aspirant.
Additional deputy commissioner Budgam however, said the flight got cancelled as it didn’t get clearance for landing at Srinagar Airport.
“State government has taken up the matter with Delhi government, we are expecting that the flight will be provided tomorrow for these students,” he said.
Earlier, the Kashmiri students scheduled to appear in the second phase of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) on February 09 and 10 were asked to register themselves with the office of the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir.
As already reported, 500 Kashmiri students missed their GATE as the MHRD set up their exam centres in Jammu. The exam was scheduled on February 02 and 03 but the students could not reach their exam centres in Jammu.
All these students couldn’t appear in the exams as the union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) turned down the plea of J&K government to set up an exam centre at Srinagar.
GATE is an All-India examination administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordinating Board -GATE, Department of Education in ministry of human resources development (MHRD).
KV Correspondent
