KEA asks students to change portal password

Following an SMS sent to students on June 22, 2013 with regard to CET online option entry that created a lot of confusion, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) on Wednesday issued an official release suggesting that students change their passwords to access the KEA portal or ensure that it is not shared with anybody.

On the said date, students had received an SMS announcing that “the KEA will carry forward valid option entered in CET 2013 Dummy Option Entry...” A Facebook post mentioning the same was also put up.

Students puzzled

The problem with that SMS was that the instructions given to students were completely confusing and it mentioned a “valid option in Dummy Option” which had left students puzzled. However, on checking with the KEA officials, they had blamed it on fake Facebook pages and fraudulent SMS alerts denying issuing any such instructions.

Investigation revealed that the SMS was indeed sent owing to lack of communication between the KEA and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) which maintains the option entry system for KEA.

Deccan Herald had published a report on this on June 26, 2013. On Wednesday evening, the KEA said, “Further to the SMS sent to all CET-2013 applicants pertaining to Option Entries on 22-06-2013, all CET applicants are to ensure that they have changed their passwords provided by KEA to access their Web Portal.”

Real option entry

In addition, the release instructed students to continue using the facility provided for Option Entry for “practice modalities of Option Entry”. But no mention has been made of dates for the real option entry.

The KEA merely has informed students that updates will be hosted on the KEA official website and also SMSes will be sent to them when the dates are confirmed, after the seat matrix gets notified.