New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Activists affiliated with the Students' Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) office here on Monday against the "careless conduct" of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) examination.

The SFI also submitted a memorandum to the UGC demanding that students who were unable to write exams due to last-minute changes in exam centres be allowed to reappear in the exams.

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"The National Testing Agency (NTA) has clearly shown its incapability to conduct CUET examinations in its first attempt. Students appearing for the examination were met with last-minute changes in their centres which led them to be unable to attend the examination," an SFI statement said.

"Several students were also misinformed at the centre that their test was rescheduled. Along with that some students were forced to write up to five exams on the same day," it said, targeting the agency for "careless conduct" of the CUET examination.

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The SFI also demanded that the officials responsible for "this fiasco" be made accountable.

"Either the NTA reorganise all the tests, or else allow this batch to take admission through the previous admission procedure. It is clear that the 'One Nation, One Exam' policy is a sham." said Pritish Menon, SFI Delhi state secretary.

The CUET exam is being conducted in two phases -- phase 1 in July and phase 2 in August. Candidates who have opted for physics, chemistry or biology have been assigned phase 2 of the CUET exam, given that NEET (UG) 2022 was held on July 17.

The UGC chief had in March announced that CUET scores, not Class 12 marks, would be mandatory for admission to 45 central universities which can fix their minimum eligibility criteria.

The first set of CUET-UG papers, the gateway for undergraduate admissions in all central universities, began at 9 am Friday at centres across more than 510 cities in India and abroad.

With 14.9 lakh registrations, the CUET is now the second largest entrance exam in the country, surpassing JEE-Main's average registration of nine lakh.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)