AIEEE aspirant Bhushan Buddhe from Gadchiroli boarded a private taxi for Nagpur at 4am on Sunday. The old rickety vehicle was packed with others on their way to Nagpur and for Bhushan it was a strenuous journey. His AIEEE exam was scheduled to start at 9.30am at Guru Harkishan High School in Bezonbagh, but Bhushan reached the centre sharp at 7.30am. He tried to control his hunger pangs as there was no eatery in sight by convincing himself that by noon he would be out. But to his shock, his AIEEE paper got delayed by three hours as it was leaked.
"This delay also means that I will have to now tweak my travel plans as service to my village (Kurkheda) is limited," said Bhushan. And he was not alone. There were an overwhelming number of students who came from outside Nagpur.
Aadesh Vaidya, a Chandrapur resident, said "We were already seated in the room when it was suddenly announced that exams had to be postponed. My mental concentration had now broken down. I could not find any eatery nearby so will have to walk some distance as I can't remain hungry till 4pm".
While local students took advantage of the three hours gap and returned home, ones like Bhushan and Aadesh were stuck in the scorching heat. Panicky phone calls were exchanged between parents and their wards with early rumours saying that the paper was leaked in Nagpur itself. It was later revealed that the paper was leaked in Lucknow.
There were many centres where parents argued with school officials on how their wards are expected to give exams in the stifling heat from noon onwards. School officials too were unprepared for this kind of development and had a hard time keeping things in control. The woman principal of a Civil Lines-based school told TOI that "They (parents and students) need to understand our side as well. The first phone call we got did not even mention that paper was leaked. We were just told to stop the exam and report to Syndicate Bank for the second set of papers. And the parents kept on thinking that we were hiding facts and blamed my teachers as if it was their fault".
There were some schools which had a functional canteen while some just had a single vendor with limited food items. With the news of exam being postponed, the outstation students rushed to get a bite but only a few were lucky. Others had to walk far as there were no autos available in the morning to find a place to eat.
Be it local or outstation students, all were of the view that the AIEEE mess had inconvenienced them.
Committee to probe paper leak
Speaking to TOI over the phone from Delhi, CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi said, "We have constituted a committee under the leadership of Pavnesh Kumar, former examination controller for CBSE. This committee will find out how the paper was leaked and submit us a report on it. We usually keep more than one set of paper ready and that is how today's exam was conducted after a delay of three hours".
