Stalin urges state govt to sell engineering applications directly

Stating that online counselling would adversely affect the first generation to be graduates attempting to pursue engineering education, Stalin said the announcement to conduct counselling online has pushed rural students into untold miseries. 

Claiming that the number of applications has reduced between 10 and 15 per cent already owing to filing of applications online, the DMK working president said the very notification of Anna University that applications could be filed from home or anywhere reveals that not all would have facility to apply online. Drawing a parallel between the counselling mess and the harrowing experience people had during the early days of demonetisation, Stalin said the assumption of Anna University that one service center per district was sufficient would put students through the same bitter experience they had waiting in queues outside ATMs after the Centre invalidated legal tender. 

Questioning the rationale behind Anna University expecting either a rural student or his/her parent to have an email id, Stalin accused the varsity vice-chancellor and the ruling AIADMK of partnering to punish rural students by introducing online application and counselling. 

Condemning the ruling AIADMK for attempting to spoil the engineering dreams of poor students, who were thus far benefitting from scrapping of the Common Entrance Test for engineering admission, by introducing online application and counselling, Stalin urged the state to immediately make efforts to sell applications and conduct the counselling directly. 

“If the government wants to hold counselling online for engineering admission apart from doing it directly, it should open at least one service center of Anna University at union level in all districts to support rural and Tamil medium students aspiring to pursue engineering education,” Stalin added.