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Shashi Tharoor writes to Nadda on NEET-PG 2024: Unfair two shifts, travel woes
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has written to Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, raising serious concerns about the challenges faced by NEET-PG aspirants.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday wrote to Union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, raising concerns over the difficulties faced by NEET-PG aspirants, including travel and accessibility of examination centres.
Tharoor pointed out that the NEET PG aspirants are facing travel challenges due to the exam's scheduled locations, with some candidates having to traverse thousands of kilometres. The adverse weather conditions, coupled with ticket availability issues and a shortage of affordable accommodation, are exacerbating these difficulties, he said.
“If we are to have national exams, we ought to be able to authorise enough centres in every state, especially given the manageable number of aspirants, allowing candidates to take the exam from centres easily accessible from their places of education or residence,” the senior Congress leader said.
NEET PG 2024 Admit Card released at natboard.edu.in, direct link to download here
He also criticised the decision to conduct the exam in two shifts with separate papers and argued that a national exam should ideally be administered in a single shift across all locations to maintain uniformity and fairness.
“The whole idea of a national examination is vitiated unless it is one test on one date everywhere across India,” Tharoor said.
“Exacerbating all of this are the reports that the number of cities, where the tests are to be conducted, has been reduced significantly,” he added.
Read: Supreme Court to hear plea seeking postponement of NEET PG tomorrow
NEET-PG postponement
The NEET-PG 2024, conducted by the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) with technical support from TCS, was cancelled on June 22, a day before it was scheduled to be held.
NBEMS President Dr Abhijat Sheth defended the exam's current arrangements saying private entrepreneur institutes have been avoided for NEET-PG 2024 centres for better monitoring and the test is being held in two shifts to eliminate any possibility of malpractice.
"We are relying on TCS iON centres and AICTE affiliated institutes to hold the exam this time for better supervision and also to stem out any possibility of malpractice. A few private entrepreneur centres have been roped in where there are no TCS iON/ AICTE affiliated institutes available," Dr Sheth told PTI.
"We have ensured that the students are issued exam centres in the same state as per their given address while filling up forms, to the best extent possible," he said.
Read: NBEMS rubbishes claims of NEET-PG question leak by 'unscrupulous agents', files police complaint
The NEET-PG will be held on pan-India basis for 2,28,542 candidates at 416 examination centres in 170 cities. The exam will be conducted in two shifts and the scores of the candidates will be normalised. The centres which were classified as high-risk by TCS based on their audit have been removed from the list.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday a plea seeking postponement of the NEET-PG 2024 examination, which claimed that candidates have been allocated cities that are highly inconvenient for them to reach and requires normalisation of scores.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Thursday took note of the submissions of lawyer Anas Tanwir on the issue.
