CM wants all PMET centres in state

Archit Watts & 

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Muktsar/chandigarh, June 5

With Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asking the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot to review its decision of making some centres for the PMET in neighbouring states, the university's plan to conduct first ever an online examination is likely to hit the roadblock. The examination is scheduled for June 11.

Earlier talking to the media during Sangat Darshan at Tarmala village, Badal said all centres for the PMET must be set up within the state as "Punjab has an exceptional educational infrastructure". 

"I have discussed the matter with the vice-chancellor over the phone," said Badal.

Sources said TCS, the IT company which was given contract by the university to conduct the PMET online, had conveyed to the university that it would not possible to conduct the examination in Punjab. They require around 16,000 computer systems in Punjab, but the availability was only around 12,000 systems. There was thus a shortage of more than 4,000 computers.  

Talking to The Tribune, BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur confirmed that he had received a message from the CM. He said looking at the situation in Haryana, the concern of the parents could not be ignored. He said they were holding meetings to find a solution. "If required, we will go for old system of on paper test," he said.

Significantly, it was for the first time that Punjab had announced to conduct PMET-2016 online. Due to inadequate computers, as many as 3,240 out of the total 15,677 candidates would have to go to neghibouring Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to take the test on June 11.