Around 2 lakh students are expected to appear for these exams. (Representational)
The Common Entrance Test or CET exams for entry into professional colleges in Karnataka began on Thursday after the High Court decided on Wednesday that students could not be prevented from writing the exams.
Students had approached the Court asking for postponement citing COVID concerns and the spike in cases in the state. But the state government insisted that all the correct SOPs are in place.
At hundreds of examination centres around the state, students holding their hall tickets queued up for temperature checks and to use a sanitiser before heading into exam halls.
Around 2 lakh students are expected to appear for these exams.
These are not the first exams conducted during the pandemic by Karnataka. The 10th standard SSLC exam for almost 8 lakh students and the pre- university exams has already been conducted. The state government insisted the student will all be safe.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan visited exam centres both before and on the day of the exams. "Every SOP is being followed. It is going on smoothly, " he said. "Maximum effort has been put by all our officers. All the children are safe and secure. This is the best possible thing that we can do."
But Karnataka and Bengaluru have seen a massive spike in COVID-19 cases. And students had approached the High Court for these important entrance tests to be delayed for the same reason. The High Court said that even students living in containment zones could appear for the exams.
Thousands of students had taken to Twitter demanding postponement. However, several others just wanted to get done with them.
Zeenat, a student, told NDTV, "We have to take the exam some day or the other. Cases are increasing day by day, so the sooner we do them the better."
Another student, Sandeep, said, "Most of the engineering students want the exam over and done with so we can focus on JEE."
Karnataka has seen over 5000 cases a day in the last 6 days while its capital Bengaluru has crossed 50,000 cases.