Mumbai: Several medical graduates appearing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) are stumped as they are allotted far off exam centres, with some of them getting cities more than 500 km away from their homes.
Some of the candidates said that they weren't allotted any of the four city choices they provided and were instead given a different city altogether. The problem was compounded by the fact that some of the cities in the state were taken off the centre list after the exam was postponed from June 22 to August 11, forcing the candidates to choose less preferred options.
With only 10 days left for the test, the candidates are scrambling to arrange travel and accommodation facilities. While the candidates were informed about their test cities by the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) on Thursday, they wouldn't get to know about their exam time slots or the exact examination centre until August 8, making it even more difficult for them to plan their stay.
Dr Mahesh Ban, a candidate from Parli Vaijnath in Beed district has been allotted Mumbai as the test city, almost 470km away from his home, even though he had provided Aurangabad, Nanded, Pune and Sangli as the preferred cities. While he had earlier chosen Latur and Beed for exam centres, those choices are no longer available after the postponement of the test, leaving only two cities for the test across eight districts of Marathwada region.
"With the limited choice of centres in Marathwada, around 75% of the candidates will have to travel to far off places for NEET-PG. How will I book a hotel in Mumbai, as I don't know in which area my centre is located. It will be a cumbersome task to travel to the city in the rains," he said.
Rajendra Patil, father of a candidate from Jalgaon had chosen the cities that are within three to four hour travel distance from their place, only to be allotted Navi Mumbai. "It's very odd that we couldn't get Jalgaon, as there aren't many aspirants from here. We will now have to travel for 10-12 hours while the railway services in the route are disrupted until August 11. The candidates will be tired after the journey and may not be in the right state of mind due to the inconvenience," he said.
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The Centre had postponed the NEET-PG examination as a ‘precautionary measure’ and to 'undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of the testing process', following the allegations of malpractices in NEET UG exam held earlier this year. The government had also cancelled UGC-NET examination, saying that it received inputs about the ‘integrity of the exam’ being compromised. The UGC-NET examination will now be held in August-September.
