West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam to be held on July 17

    Kolkata, Jun 23 (PTI) The West Bengal Joint Entrance
Examination (WBJEE) will be held on July 17, making it the
first major examination in the state to be conducted offline
amid the improvement in the COVID-19 situation, officials said
on Wednesday.
    A total of 92,695 candidates will appear for the
examinations for entry into undergraduate engineering courses
across 274 centres, they said.
    "This will be the first offline exam to be held this
year in the state and poses a challenge, which we are
confident about facing, taking full care of the health issues
of candidates, and those involved in the exam process," WBJEE
Board chairman Malayendu Saha said.
    The exam was earlier scheduled to be held on July 11,
but was deferred by six days with the hope that the pandemic
situation will improve further, he said.
    "There will be a minimum of 4-5 feet distance between
the seats of two candidates, and one candidate will be seated
in a small desk and two in the bigger ones," he said.
    The board plans to declare the results by August 14
and complete the counselling process in three phases by
September 15, he said.
    "In the overall interest of the students, we are
taking all these decisions. We will optimise our resources to
ensure everything passes off smoothly," Saha said.
    The exam is being held on a Saturday, instead of the
usual practice of conducting it on Sundays, taking in view the
availability of transport amid the ongoing restrictions, he
said.
    Around 40 per cent of the candidates are from outside
the state this year, he said.
    The board will also conduct 11 different examinations
this year, including the entrance exams of Presidency
University for entry into UG and PG courses that will be held
on August 7 and 8, he said. PTI SUS SBN
SOM SOM

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)