Because things couldn't be worse. Results of as many as 170 exams are pending and Ahuja admits that there are cases where students' test papers have been sent to Bangalore, Patna and Varanasi. Chances are that even if these have been checked, it will be quite a while before they reach the campus. Unless, of course, they are airlifted. The university has no plan, no funds, to get this done.

But Ahuja says she has already begun. Eight special teams have been set up to contact examiners, one by one, vehicles are being sent to collect the test papers from their homes and a list of those who haven't returned the papers is being prepared.

Talk to the examiners and they have their own reasons. For one, many of them say they haven't been paid. Laad Kumari Jain, a reader in the political science department, says that this is one reason why examiners have ``lost their enthusiasm''. She adds it's difficult for teachers to check papers and take classes at the same time. Students say all this is an excuse. ``What's happening at the better universities? Do teachers get a vacation there to check papers?'' asks a third-year undergraduate student who's waiting for his results and did not want to be named. ``For teachers and the administration, our future is the last priority.'' Look around and every other student has a shocking story to tell:

1) Sanskriti Sharma (20) graduated with a first division from Maharani College and wanted to join Vanasthali Vidyapeeth to do her MA in English. While admissions were over in July, she got her results a fortnight ago. She will now have to wait for the next session, apply afresh.

2) Nisha Verma, a BSc final-year student of Maharani College, could not get admission to the MSc Bio-Technology course at Vanasthali Vidyapeeth despite having made it in the entrance test. The reason: her results weren't out by August 14, the deadline set by Vidyapeeth.

3) Chittaranjan Sharma of the Rajkiya Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya took his second-year exam, behind schedule, in December last year. Because of the delay, his finals were just three months later in March this year. Sharma took the test hoping its results would be declared before his B.Ed. test in August. Eight months and he is still waiting.

Students say the main problem is that they are not the university's priority. On June 6, the non-teaching staff responsible for processing results went on a strike demanding a hike in overtime wages, even as exams were going on. No alternative arrangements were made. Result: instead of the 250 designated people, only six senior officials were left to do the work.

Ask the professors and they say this is part of the larger rot. As many as 50 of 61 professors' posts are vacant, university accounts have not been audited since 1990-91, employees' PF of over Rs 4 crore hasn't been deposited since April '96...the list goes on.

Former V-C V I Rajagopal, who resigned the day Bhardwaj set himself ablaze, has his own reasons. First, he says, the university is burdened with too many examinations: 260, ranging from PG degrees in Medicine to diplomas in Stenography and Hotel Management; second, teachers and non-teaching staff had gone on strike; third, ``certain forces were out to sabotage the entire process of preparation of results''; and lastly, examiners had not been paid since 1995 and their checked test papers reached the university in October even though they had been sent in August. The state government, as usual, made its token comment. Higher Education Minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi told The Indian Express that his Government was "concerned" over the state of affairs in the university and had "tried whatever it could" to streamline things. And since its role was "limited", it could only lend a helping hand to the Chancellor and the V-C.

No wonder examinations are relegated way down in order of priority. Last year, amid charges of paper leaks and bribery during admissions for PG courses in medical colleges, the State Bureau of Investigation recovered Rs 7 lakh during raids at houses of university staffers conducting the tests.

According to sources, more than Rs 18 lakh changed hands in the whole affair. V-C R N Singh, who presided over this and many other scandals, was made to go on leave. But no action was taken.