New Delhi, Jun 18 (IANS): Delhi University's plans for an organised and orderly last day for submission of admission forms came to naught as hordes of last-minute applicants forced the counters to be kept open beyond the scheduled timings Monday.

Counters for receiving forms at the university's north and south campuses opened half an hour earlier at 9:30 a.m. and were scheduled to close by 1 p.m.

"The rush is such that we don't expect we will be able to close the counters before 4 p.m.," deputy dean for student welfare, Gurpreet Singh Tuteja told IANS.

"Originally, we had planned to keep them open till 1 p.m. while the forms could be submitted at 12 designated post offices around the city till 4 p.m., so anyone running late would still be able to submit forms," he added.

The forms could also be submitted online till 5 p.m. Monday. "The number of online applications stands just short of 41,000," Tuteja said.

However, these alternative methods seemed to hold no charm for the applicants who stood in long queues at the university counters. Compared to the applicants in the campus, there were hardly any aspirants at Head Post Office Lodhi road, one of the designated post offices where forms could be submitted.

Incredibly, some of the applicants didn't even know that Monday was the last day for submission of application forms. Others recounted various reasons for turning up at the last moment.

"I was busy with various coaching classes and tests earlier, so I kept on pushing the submission till now," claimed Roshan, an admission seeker from south Delhi's Saket area.