Mumbai University woes pour into Lalbaugcha Raja donation box

Affected with the unprecedented crisis at the University of Mumbai due to delayed results, several university students turned to Lalbaugcha Raja to resolve their problems.

A number of letters from aggrieved students have found their way to donation boxes at Lalbaugcha Raja. While the temple trust is yet to count the letters, they confirmed several such requests poured in for the deity this year.

"We get thousands of letters from students every year. But this year, we found a few letters in which students had expressed their woes after the university failed to declare their results in time. Students have prayed to the deity for the announcement of results at the earliest so that their future won't be at stake," said Mahesh Jadhav, treasurer of the mandal. Jadhav said that a few members of the core team happened to skim through the letters in which students had expressed their plight about losing on opportunities of higher education and jobs due to delayed results.

"We will count the number of letters soon and would then know how many such letters have come in," added Jadhav.

This year, results of over 4 lakh students were delayed due to a newly introduced digital evaluation system. Introduced by VC Sanjay Deshmukh, who has now been sent on 'forced leave', the system left thousands of students in the lurch as over 59,000 of 19 lakh answer sheets are yet to be evaluated. The university's help desk which is set up to address the issues of incorrect results and to aid students pursuing higher education get their results in time has already addressed over 10,000 complaints in the last one month.

"Students are rendered helpless due to the collapse of this entire system. With the failure of the university to declare results in time and to address the resulting issues, it's not a surprise that students are now requesting the deity to help them sail through this," said Sanjay Vairal, an ex-Senate member at the university.