Thursday was the last date for submitting online applications for MBA CET. For submitting the online application, the brochure with prospectus and application kit is necessary.

These brochures were made available at the selected post offices in the city.

According to the official timings announced by the General Post Office, the sell of brochures was supposed to close at 4 pm. But today, the post office stopped selling brochures at 2 pm.

“We have been told by the Directorate of Education that the online application process will be closed at 2 pm. So, there is no point in selling brochures after that. That’s why we stopped giving the brochures at 2 pm,” said an official at the selling counter.

As many students were unaware of this, those who reached the post office after 2 pm got caught in confusion.

“As the official timing was up to 4 pm, I came at the post office at 3.30 pm,” said Sharad Kul, a candidate. Pradumna Rainak, another candidate, had come to the post office by taking half day off from his office.

“As I was arranging for the money for buying prospectus, which costs Rs 1,150, I had no option but to wait till the last day of submitting the application form. But instead of coming in time, I could not submit the application as I did not get the brochure,” he said.

Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) manages the back end of the online application system of Directorate of Technical Education.

When contacted, Vivek Sawant, managing director of MKCL, said: “The system is supposed to accept the forms till 5 pm, which we have confirmed. As today was the last day of submission, the load on the server was high. So, the Directorate asked us to continue run the system till 8 pm. Even if they would have asked us to continue accepting online applications till 12 pm, we would have done that also.”