(Image source from: Believe it or not: Cow to write 'BOPEE' Exam})

The Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) Saturday evoked widespread criticism for issuing an admit card in the name of a cow for appearing in a professional entrance examination next week.

In strange turn of events, the admit card for the entrance examination for Diploma in Polytechnic was issued by BOPEE in the name of KachirGaaw(Brown Cow) who is supposedly daughter of GuraDaand (Red Bull).

The admit card has been verified and scrutinized by BOPEE.

The 'candidate' has been asked to appear in the exam on May 10 and has been allotted her center in room number five in commerce block of Government Degree College Bemina, Srinagar. She has been asked to make her entry before 09:55 a.m.

As per the provisional confirmation page of BOPEE, KachirGaaw has been registered under application number 4B0P1505048 in open category (06) for the entrance test.

BOPEE has verified the rest of the bio-data of Kachir Gaaw who is a ‘permanent resident’ of Kah Charai Hamkhalan of Brenwar in Chadoora area of central Kashmir's Budgam district. The ‘candidate’ is 1997 born and her current age has been verified as 18 years, 11 months 29 days.

The ‘candidate’ has applied for entrance through online mode and paid an amount of Rs 500 via bank transaction number DC-53635.

Interestingly, BOPEE has asked the cow to read the instructions carefully before appearing in the examination. "Check your particulars in the admit card carefully. Errors if any, should be immediately reported to the BOPEE office, Srinagar/ Jammu," reads a portion of the admit card.

The issue was highlighted after opposition National Conference spokesman JunaidAzimMattu uploaded a copy of the admit card on micro blogging site Twitter.

"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 applicant Ms 'KachirGaaw' as well as details of payment she made to BOPEE," Mattu wrote on Twitter.

"(Education Minister) Mr. Naeem Akhtar @jkpdp has some explaining to do. New benchmark of progress in Education sector under him - COWS getting roll no. slips?" Mattu added.

The development caught the attention of former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who has mocked at the government stating that he wished the cow would turn up for examination. "Brilliant. I wish KachirGaaw had turned up for the examination," Omar commented on Mattu's post.

Mattu later told Greater Kashmir that the mocking incident has revealed that even cows can appear in professional tests in place of students. "Education minister needs to tell us that is this the benchmark of his reform in education sector," questioned Mattu, adding, "Will his reforms go to the tone that even cows can get degrees. We demand an answer from CM and Education Minister."

Education Minister Naeem Akhtar however said the incident was outcome of the system which has been inherited from the past regime. "It is a system which has been just inherited by me. We are inquiring in it and are going to change the system," he said.

He said they have inherited fake schools, hanging schools, non-existing schools and other scandals. "This is one of them which is the result of mis-governance of the past six years," the minister added.

Controller BOPEE, Farooq Ahmad Mir ruled out their involvement saying that they had no role in allotting exam centers and admit cards. "In online process the information of student gets stored directly and BOPEE has no access to it. We have a particular agency for doing this job," Mir said without sharing the name of the agency. "I can't share its name."

Asked about his signature on the admit card, he said, "Controller's sign is generated by default on every admit card. We don't know how this information got printed. None of our official has access to the data submitted by students online," he added.

Meanwhile, a person namely Abdul Rashid of Budgam has admitted that he played this prank to check the scrutiny of the BOPEE system. Rashid dropped into a news channel office here and confessed it was he who had done it.

- Manohar. M