Srinagar, May 3 (HT) : An official body in Jammu and Kashmir that conducts entrance tests for professional courses was the butt of jokes on Sunday when it emerged that it had issued an admit card to a cow to appear for an examination.
The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations issued the card to “Kachir Gaw” (brown cow in the Kashmiri language) for a test on May 10 to select candidates for a polytechnic diploma course. The card said the applicant was the daughter of Gur Dand (bull).
After Junaid Azeem Mattu, a spokesperson for the opposition National Conference, tweeted images of the admit card, complete with a photo of a brown cow, the board was the subject of a series of tweets poking fun at it.
Farooq Ahmad Mir, the controller of examinations of the board, told the media the admit cards were issued through an automated process and the panel would take action against the “prankster” who applied for a card for a cow.
“The entire process – from filling up an application form to generation of admit cards – is computer generated. There is an image recognition software, which does not differentiate between a human’s face and an animal’s picture. Someone has played a prank,” Mir told The Indian Express.
“We will act against the prankster after tracking down his IP address.”
The National Conference sought an explanation on the embarrassing lapse from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
Mattu said in a series of tweets: “The J-K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations issued this roll-number slip to a cow after due verification…I have both the Provisional Confirmation Page for the applicant Ms. Kachir Gaw as well as details of the payment she made to BOPEE.”
He said education minister Naeem Akhtar had “some explaining to do”.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah, also the working president of the National Conference, tweeted: “Brilliant. I wish Kachir Gaaw had turned up for the examination.”
After an informal heads-up was sent to the government, the board was asked to take the record for Kachir Gaw down from its website, sources said.