Andhra Pradesh government to withdraw One minute late rule'

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to take a back step on the implementation of the ‘One minute late rule’ at the examination hall after facing criticism from students and parents.

Hundreds of students had suffered due to this rule and hence student associations had raised their voice opposing this rule. The education department had withdrawn this rule after serious warnings from Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The Andhra Pradesh higher education department had started implementing the ‘One minute late rule’ in various CET examinations in the united AP since 2012 to prevent malpractices and to encourage time management.

Later, it extended this rule to various competitive examinations and regular public examination to promote discipline.

Hundreds of students had suffered and lost an academic year with this rule in recent times. The huge traffic and confusion in finding addresses in cities had created problems for the students and they couldn’t reach the examination centres on time. Student unions had staged protests opposing this rule.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, after examining the pros and cons of this rule, directed the officials not to continue this anymore as many students were losing a precious academic year. The Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Council had organised a meeting regarding this and decided not to implement this rule any further, starting from the Eamcet- 2017 examinations.

Officials of the Higher Education Council had not made a statement regarding this and were unavailable for comment when contacted.

Student unions are happy with the decision of the AP government. “We welcome the decision of the government. Implementing such stringent conditions were creating problems and pressurising the students. Officials should consider the future of the students before imposing such rules,” says secretary, All-India Students Federation Paruchuri Rajendra.