New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Tuesday said the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have failed to deliver on the online CAT and ordered an inquiry into continuing glitches that have left thousands of aspirants helpless.
Sibal, however, promised not to interfere with the IIMs’ autonomy in conducting CAT (common admission test).

“This should not have happened. As government, we are very concerned,” Sibal said while talking to reporters in parliament premises. The CAT score is key to getting admission into the eight premier management institutes and over 100 other business schools across the country.

“Steps should have been taken. Some dry run should have been carried out before. They have failed to deliver the exams,” Sibal said.

“I had asked the IIMs to give me a report and as per Dec 1 morning, 45,000 students had enrolled for giving the test but 8,000 could not. This is a huge percentage. I will ask the IIMs that next time it does not happen,” he added.

With CAT going online this year, the IIMs decided to hold the exam over a 10-day period instead of conducting it on a single day.

But for the last four days, thousands of IIM aspirants have failed to take the test as the server crashed in scores of centres across the country. While the test conducting firm, Prometric, has blamed it on viruses, students and coaching centers have blamed the collapse on mismanagement and institutes’ failure to rectify the glitches.

The minister said there would be an inquiry into the matter before coming to a conclusion. “There were some virus problems and also some hardware problems. I will only know the exact cause after the inquiry is over.”

“Don’t ask me about the re-examination. It will be done by IIMs. They are autonomous and we will not interfere in their affairs. CAT is conducted by IIMs and not we,” he said, adding the re-examination would be conducted by the IIMs themselves. “I will request them (on this).”

On the fourth day of the entrance examination, ‘the CAT and mouse game’ continued as hundreds of students were left in the lurch and could not take their online test due to technical snags. They accused the IIMs of laxity and mismanagement.

Computers crashed in several test centres in cities like Lucknow, Delhi and Bhopal.

“Students in Delhi, Bhopal and Lucknow have called us saying they could not give the exam. Many of them are the rescheduled candidates,” said Ulhas Vairagkar, director of the TIME coaching institute here.

Candidates outside SMS College at Lucknow said they were facing a harrowing time, going to different re-alloted centres time and again with no guarantee that they would be able to take the test.

“I was to take CAT in the morning slot two days back. After waiting for over two hours, we were told that because of technical problems there would be no exam. Late in the evening, I got an SMS saying I should go to another institute. I went yesterday (Monday) but again the CAT was suspended,” Neeraj Prasad, a CAT candidate, told IANS over the phone from Lucknow.