Loadshedding irks students as inter exams start in AJK

MIRPUR - Students appearing in intermediate examinations of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Mirpur are badly suffering due to the unscheduled loadshedding, as they are faced with severe hardships in preparing their papers, The Nation has learnt. As many as 65,000 candidates are appearing in the examinations throughout Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The BISE Mirpur established 150 examination centres out of which 23 centres are in Mirpur district and 11 in Mirpur city. The intermediate examination started from the May first week and will end on June 8. Students appearing in FA, FSc and Alosom-e-Sherqiya examinations have complained of power outages. It was observed that some examination centres did not even have drinking water available at the premises, while some centres in remote areas faced long hours loadshedding. When contacted, Controller BISE Mirpur AJK Sardar Muhammad Razaq Khan said loadshedding would affect the students results. He said the board officials had already advised the superintendents to keep the windows of examination centres open if there was loadshedding. He said the authority had set up 150 examination centres and BISE was not in position to provide backup generators at all these centres. Examination officials at various centres said most of the government examination centres had poor natural lighting and the lack of generators added to the students problems. Rashid Ali, an examiner, said it became very hard for the students to solve papers during heat in the examination hall without electricity. Students talking to this correspondent said it became very difficult for them to concentrate on studies because of unscheduled power outages. Due to electricity loadshedding, it also became difficult to solve papers in the examination halls, they added. Baber Khushal, a student of second year, said students did not have enough light at the examination centres adding that they had to fight hot weather while attempting papers. Rizwan, another student, said in their locality they were facing worst ever loadshedding as there was no schedule. He said it badly affecting their studies. Students have appealed to Wapda and AJK Government to coordinate with the board officials in order to facilitate them during the examinations. They urged the authorities concerned to announce a schedule for loadshedding and try not to disconnect electricity during examination timings so that they could concentrate on studies. Meanwile, National Highways & Motorway Police has recovered three stolen/ snatched cars and one Shehzor pickup and arrested four persons involved in it. As per details, Motorway Police were informed by Rawalpindi police that a white colour Shehzor pickup No LEG-1251 has been stolen from the area of Westraidge Police Station Rawalpindi, and requested for help in recovering the said Shehzor pickup. On this information, the Motorway Police got alerted all its patrolling officers. After few minutes the NH&MP officers SPO Shahid Hussain and PO Ahsan Zia arrested 02 culprits namely Murad Ali and Muhammad Nazir. While, in another incident, Motorway Police arrested two culprits namely Bahadur and Muhammad Abbas.