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The Maharashtra Congress Committee on Monday, wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding a probe in the Maharashtra Health and Technical Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET), a State-level common entrance examination, alleging irregularities.
Maharashtra’s State Common Entrance Test Cell conducted the test on April 27, 2025, for admissions in engineering colleges for the academic year 2025-26. After the test, there were reports of students claiming that over a dozen questions had incorrect options.
A day later, Harshvardhan Sapkal, President of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, on April 28, alleged that irregularities during the examination have caused concern among students and parents.
Writing to the CM, the letter claimed, “Students have complained that at the exam center in Ahilyanagar district, 20 to 25 questions in the 50-mark mathematics paper had incorrect answer options. This is a very serious matter, and the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has demanded that students be awarded marks for these erroneous questions.”
The Congress State President further stated that in the mathematics paper, among the 50 questions, 20 to 25 had incorrect answer options. In some cases, all four options given were wrong. However, since students were required to attempt all questions, they were compelled to choose incorrect options, the letter alleged.
Mr. Sapkal claimed that when students complained about this at the exam center, their grievances were ignored. “Similar complaints have been reported from other examination centers across the State. Some centers also faced server outages, but satisfactory responses were not provided by the examination authorities. This examination is crucial for engineering admissions. If as many as 20 to 25 questions had incorrect options, it could cause significant harm to students. Who is responsible for this? Why should students suffer due to the negligence of the institutions or companies responsible for preparing the papers and conducting the examination? This is not merely a matter of a few questions; it concerns the future of thousands of students,” he said.
The opposition party has demanded that the State government’s intervention into the matter, urging the government to take the issue seriously and also take strict action against those responsible. “Institutions that cannot properly prepare papers or organise examinations should never be entrusted with such tasks again and should be blacklisted. The State government is fully responsible for ensuring that students are not harmed under any circumstances,” Mr. Sapkal.
Published – April 29, 2025 02:33 am IST
