Telangana CETs based on astro dates

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) on Tuesday announced the dates for various common entrance tests that will be conducted this year.

And all the dates are believed to be auspicious muhurats. The announcement, too, came on a Tuesday, which happened to be Ekadasi.

The Eamcet will be conducted on May 2, on Dashami. Likewise, Ecet will be held on May 12, Sashti, Icet on May 19, Trayodasi, Edcet on May 27, Panchami and PGcet on May 29, Saptami. May 24, Tadiya, has been finalised for Lawcet and PGLcet (Post Graduate Law Common Entrance Test) and Pecet will be held on May 5, on Panchami.

Nearly 2.4 lakh students wrote Eamcet last year for admissions into various engineering and medical colleges in the state.

A significant number of AP students, nearly 50,000, also attempted the test. This has been kept in mind while finalising the date for Eamcet this year.

Andhra Pradesh had earlier announced May 5 as the date for the entrance test in the 13 districts of the state. Council authorities have given the responsibility of conducting the entrance tests to the same universities, which oversaw the tests last year.

Thus Eamcet and Ecet exams will be conducted by JNTU-Hyderabad this year.

TSCHE higher officials tried to downplay the auspicious dates issue. They said it was nothing new and this practice was followed even in the undivided state of AP. The objective was to ensure that the exams were held smoothly without any hindrance, they said. Official sources, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that department staff would themselves shortlist a few dates that were generally auspicious, and which did not clash with any major entrance exam of neighboring states.

There is no practice of consulting astrologers since anyone can figure out “good” and “bad” days by just glancing at the Telugu calendar, they said.

When asked if factors such as Rahu Kalam and Yama Gandam would be taken into consideration in fixing timings of the exams, the authorities replied in the negative. Timings are well-defined and there will be no change, they said. While considering Hindu sentiments for auspicious dates, the authorities have also taken note that Eamcet, in which lakhs of students appear, is not held on Friday (auspicious for Muslims) and Sunday (when Christians visit churches).

Priest S.B.V.N. Acharyulu of the Hyderabad unit of TS Temple Employees’ Association said, “Perhaps the authorities want the exams to be held on time and as scheduled. Hence auspicious dates were locked,” he said.”