• In a first, exams held at Taluk Headquarters
• Students’ body temperature checked before entering examination hall

Mysore/Mysuru: The two-day Common Entrance Test (CET)-2020 for admission to Under-Graduate Engineering, Architecture, Agriculture, Horticulture, Pharmacy  and other professional courses (barring Medical and Dental courses) in Karnataka, began today at 26 centres across the district, including 20 in the city alone.

The Karnataka Examination Authority went ahead with the conduct of the exam as scheduled on July 30 and 31, after the Karnataka High Court, which heard a petition challenging the conduct of the exam amid COVID-19 crisis yesterday, gave green signal for the test, following a submission made by the State Government that it had formulated an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the conduct of CET-2020, taking into account the health and safety of students.

Today, on the first day, Biology and Mathematics papers were held and Physics and Chemistry papers will take place tomorrow (July 31). While the Biology paper was held in the morning session (10.30 am to 11.50 am), the Maths paper was held in the afternoon session (2.30 pm to 3.50 pm).

The 20 centres in the city included D. Banumaiah College, JSS Women’s College in Saraswathipuram, Gopalaswamy PU College near Nanjumalige Circle, Maharani PU College on N.S. Road, Maharaja PU College on JLB Road, Marimallappa PU College, Teresian College in Siddarthanagar, Vidyavardhaka PU College on Seshadri Iyer Road, JSS PU College on Ooty Road, Government PU College, Vontikoppal, SBRR Mahajana College in Jayalakshmipuram, Sarada Vilas College in Krishnamurthypuram and Government PU College, Hebbal.

For the first time, due to COVID-19 outbreak, the exam is being held at one centre in all the Taluk Headquarters  of the District at H.D. Kote, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatna, Hunsur, Nanjangud and T. Narasipur.

A total of 10,368 students  from the district are appearing for this all important exam. All the students were required to arrive at their respective centre two hours ahead of the start of the exam and it was mandatory to wear face masks. 

Also, all the students were thermal screened for body temperature and were asked to use hand sanitisers before being allowed inside the Exam Hall. Also, all the exam centres were thoroughly sanitised.

The District Administration had set up an exclusive centre for three students of the district, who had tested positive for COVID-19, at KSOU’s Academic Bhavan at Mandakalli, which is a COVID Care Centre. 

The authorities had made arrangements for ferrying them to this centre in an ambulance to and fro from their place of stay, with all the health measures in place.

Just before the start of the exam, the exam papers were despatched to all the centres in designated vehicles on 10 identified routes under tight Police security.

As a measure for the smooth conduct of the exam, the city Police had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC in 200 metre radius  of all the exam centres from 6 am to 6 pm on both the days.Accordingly, no unauthorised person was allowed inside the centres and all photocopy and stationary shops in the vicinity were asked to shut down. A number of Police personnel were stationed at all the centres as a security measure.

Although the exam was scheduled last month itself, there was uncertainty on the conduct of the exam as the Karnataka High Court only on Tuesday had asked the State Government to reconsider the dates in view of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Court on Wednesday gave the green signal for the test, following a submission by the State Government on its readiness and the precautionary and safety measures that it  has put in place.