NEET PG 2024 aspirants in sweat over centres '1,000 kms away'; demand single shift exam in home states

NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET) PG 2024 has again sparked a wave of concerns as aspirants flagged the issue of far-off examination centres. Several candidates narrated their ordeal on social media and slammed the National Board of Examinations (NBE) for allegedly causing mental harassment. The students are demanding the exam in a single shift and centres within their home states. NEET PG 2024 is scheduled for August 11 in two shifts.

The students argued what was the point of conducting NEET PG 2024 in two shifts, if they have been allotted centres “thousands of kilometres” away from their location. Some Members of Parliament (MPs) also came in support of the aggrieved candidates and wrote to the state governments seeking their consideration.

In a letter to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, MP Adoor Prakash explained the whole situation and sought his immediate intervention. He said that 1,000 candidates from Kerala as well as students from other states have been affected by the chaos. The MP also suggested considering holding the exam on a later date in a single shift and nearby test centres, citing travel and accommodation challenges for the students.

Another MP, John Brittas sought attention of union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda on the issue while throwing light on how around 10,000 MBBS students of Kerala including female and pregnant candidates, set to take the entrance exam, will suffer. Echoing the plight of the whole student community, the minister explained how Kerala candidates were mandatorily made to choose the last option of exam centres from Andhra Pradesh. Majority of them have been allotted centre in AP, a state 1000 kms away from the God’s own country.

NBEMS had asked candidates to provide choices of four test cities within the state of correspondence address. During the NEET PG exam city selection facility, several aspirants complained of slow website, login issues, and were vexed with 'random' allotment scheme.

NEET PG 2024: Postponement, random centres, issues

A associate professor of biochemistry, in a series of posts, complained how students have been put under mental and financial stress exam by the exam and explained the chronology of events – exam was first postponed, candidates were asked to choose new exam centres, and now a Tamil Nadu aspirant has been given the third preference as the centre which is located in Andhra Pradesh. The professor urged Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin and health minister Subramanian Ma to intervene.

"Postponement of exam dates, allocating centres that are from their hometown will only increase financial and eventually mental stress. Train tickets are unavailable (and given the recent performance of the railway, nobody wants to take the risk of booking tickets) Flight tickets costs are very high. Even if they managed to book, they are uncertain about the exam. One student told me, what are the chances that they might cancel the exam again..," he said.

A doctor and activist Dhruv Chauhan wrote on X, “Dear Narendra Modi, once you said that physically disabled people should be called “Divyang” and respected. Is this the respect you were talking about when your education and health ministry can’t even respect their disability! This is shameful !”

An advocate said, “Stop treating NEET PG aspirants as robots. Why would they travel long distance from one state to other for an exam where they have paid examination fees for choosing the center and better facilities. What is the benefit of having ‘one nation one exam’.”

“Why should doctors travel to other states to give NEET PG 2024? Who'll pay for current tickets and hotels flight tickets are so high and heavy-rain and floods across the country. Two shifts to accommodate students in nearby centre was a lie by NBEMS,” a candidate said. “Can NBE answer me how to travel for such long? Bookings, floods, room availablity? Routes are affected, train delays, stop playing with lives,” remarked another candidate.

Sharing his plight, an aspirant said, “Unbelievable! The nearest exam center to me is just 1.5 km away, yet I've been allotted a center 260 km away. This is absurd and shows a complete lack of organization by the governing body. How is this fair or efficient?” “Another NBE head said they wanted to conduct #neetpg in 2 shifts so students don't have to travel long distance and then literally giving centers 500-1000 kms away across states and flood hit areas. This is serious mental harrasment to students before biggest exam,” said another aspirant.

A surgeon shared his opinion on the issue and said, “NBEMS playing mind games just before the exams and taking NEET PG aspirants for granted! Test Centres allocated are 100s of KMs away! 4th option is the 1st option for them! Multiple shifts were made to accommodate students in the nearby center, not to throw them far away!”