Maharashtra Govt. Issued Notice to Totally Stop Offline Admission Process in Colleges

Mumbai: After the 16-year old Pushpa Suryavanshi killed herself for not getting a seat in her preferred college in spite of spending money, the Maharashtra state education ministry on Monday ‘has warned’ principals to stop offline admissions in colleges. The direction also urged the students to not accept admissions made through offline procedures.

The order also said that colleges still running an offline admission procedure, will be held questionable and principals will be held responsible for the entire process. Also, students who were not admitted through online admission process, will later be ‘barred’ from all the board examinations, said the notice, issued by the office of the deputy director of education (DYDE), Mumbai division.

In case of the already conducted offline admissions, according to DYDE, the colleges now have to return original documents, fees and photographs already collected from the students.

Reports are that Suryavanshi had secured 84 percent marks in the board examinations. “She hanged herself last Thursday for being denied admission into a college of her preference despite paying the ‘fees’,” said an investigating officer. Pushpa was a student of Sudhagad Education Society (SES) and wanted to continue higher studies from there. Following her death, Principal Iqbal Inamdar, who had promised Pushpa a seat in SES and has taken money from her, was arrested.

“The DYDE has now opened the admission process again for those who had not reported for admission after seat allocation. Thereafter, three special rounds will be conducted for students who had not applied, had filled in forms incorrectly and those who want to change their college or stream,” as a DYDE official has noted.

Following the direction, students continued to lodge their complaints in the DYDE office. While many complained about misleading information about preferences of colleges and admission procedure, the officials said that the students missed to fill their form properly, filling the criterions. “I had filled in the first five preferences properly as advised by the officials. But because we couldn’t submit an incomplete list, I filled in the rest of my preferences at random,” said a student.