Mumbai: Blaming students for changing preference of colleges while taking admission in Class 11, education minister Vinod Tawde informed the Assembly on Thursday that more than 10,000 students changed their preference after the release of the first list. Also, MLAs demanded to reintroduce offline admissions to avoid the ongoing confusion and panic.

“Colleges were allocated to students based on their choice. But after the first list released, we came to know that as many as 10,000 students changed their choice and did not take admission in the colleges they were allotted. It put a pressure on the entire system and it resulted into the procedure slowing down. With so many students changing their preference, it naturally affects the system,” said Mr Tawde. Compared to rest of Maharashtra, there is more number of colleges in Mumbai with minority status, which further complicated the admission process, he added.

“The state officials, after speaking to some students, came to know that instead of students, parents had filled the forms and hence the allotted colleges were not opted by the students. Hence, the state will develop a mechanism, which would generate a password, and only one person can fill in the admission forms. This will reduce the loan on the online system, though the state is going to enhance the capacity of the server to handle the incoming traffic,” he said. Mr Tawde said while replying to queries related to the delay in Class 11 admission.

During the discussion, BJP MLA Raj Purohit demanded a 50 per cent quota for local students. The south Mumbai MLA had earlier led a morcha against the BJP-ruled government raising the demand. Supporting the demand, Shiv Sena’s Sunil Prabhu said that colleges should be asked to admit local students as a “special case”. While Mr Prabhu claimed that all assembly legislators were in favour of the move, BJP’s Sunil Deshmukh opposed the suggestion. “The admission process must be merit-based. How can we suggest that a meritorious student from the suburbs or far-off suburbs should be deprived of an admission to top south Mumbai college just because he does not stay there?” Mr Deshmukh asked.

The minister also pointed out that there are 2.60 lakh students in Mumbai  —highest in Maharashtra, who submitted their applications online.