Only 76,527 students out of 1,23,802, who were on the first merit list got admission till Tuesday evening. NB Chavan, assistant director, Higher Secondary, office of the deputy director of Education, Mumbai Region, said that the low figure was mainly due to many students taking admission in colleges through minority quota and also due to many erroneous applications that were being corrected.

Meanwhile, around 200 activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), protested outside State Education Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s residence at Hanging Garden against the online admission process. Party workers said that there were several students and parents who were facing trouble with the website and the entire online admission procedure.

While Vikhe Patil was not present at his residence, the workers met officers from the education department.  “Parents have approached us with complaints about online process. There are some cases of meritorious students not getting into preferred colleges while in others students have been allotted seats in colleges that they had not selected. Just as the department decided to extend the admission schedule by one day to let students complete their formalities, they should allow students to rectify mistakes as this is the first time admission are being done online,” said Ashish Shelar of BJYM.

“We demanded that information about grievance centres has to be made available in schools and colleges and not just in the media. Most students do not know that there are 25 help centres across the city. There is confusion among students. The officials have assured us that the complaints will be looked into. If not, we will launch intensify our agitation,” added Shelar.

... contd.