SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 11: The Ranchi University administration had earlier developed a system of online fee submission to facilitate the students during the lockdown so that the students would not have to go to the university headquarters to deposit the fee. But, with this step, a new costlier problem awaits students.
Dozens of students of PG second semester and J N College Dhurwa have claimed that their transactions failed while depositing the examination fee due to which their results have been held. Students have said that if they are not given another chance to submit the exam form, then a whole year may be wasted.
Several of these students are now being charged Rs 3,000 as fine instead of Rs 500 for the exam fee. Students have said that if the payments failed due to a faulty server, then why they should be made to pay for it. Several students have claimed that money was deducted from their account, which made them believe that their fee was paid, but the amount was later refunded.
Several students of JN College in Dhurva, Ranchi have also claimed facing a similar issue. When the MA examination form was being filled, many students of the second semester of the session 2020-22 had filled their form within the stipulated time limit. Since, the transaction takes place online, many times the money is deducted from the account while depositing the fee for the form and later the money is returned due to failure of the transaction. The students were not aware of this initially but were informed by the university recently. This has happened with about 50 students, who are now applying again to Ranchi University, so that their forms are accepted.
Notably, this isn’t the first time that students have had to face such a problem. Several students of Gossner College, Doranda College and Marwari College had faced a similar situation last year in the months of September and October. Here, students had claimed that their transactions had failed initially while filing exam forms for the fifth semester for UG courses, but they were made aware of this when it was time to fill their exam forms for the final semester.
Of these, Abhishek Guria had tried filling the form online two times. Both times, the transaction had failed and the money was deducted from his account. He said after facing this issue, he had to go to the university to fill up his form once again. Hence he had to pay the then exam fee that was Rs 1500, three times.
Several students who were not as prompt and aware of what was going on including Mohit Barla and others could not fill up their fee on time and as a result, their year was wasted.
In the affiliated colleges of Ranchi University, the students whose amount could not be deposited earlier are now filling the form again by writing the applications after permission from the examination controller of their colleges. After getting permission from the college level to fill the form, permission is also needed from the exam controller of the university. Because of this, students have to go from their respective colleges to the university, where they may have to wait for hours in line before the exam controller takes their forms. Along with this, instead of Rs 500, the students are made to pay Rs 3000 as late fines. Failure to do so will result in their results being withheld, and a year being wasted.
Aarti Oraon, a PG student waiting to fill up her fee physically said, “Even though our transaction failed, the amount is deducted from our accounts. Believing that the transaction was successful, I left it at that. I got to know that my exam fee was not submitted when my results were held. If the server fails, how is it our fault? Why are we being made to pay for this mistake?”
Notably, the online exam fee of PG second semester in Ranchi University was deposited last year. After this the mid-semester examination was held from February 10 to 14. When the results were released a few days back, the results of the students whose fees were not deposited, were held.
When contacted for a comment, RU VC Dr Kamini Kumar, Exam Controller Ashish Kumar Jha and DSW R K Sharma could not be available.