In Chandigarh, where only two candidates had registered for the re-examination, none of them turned up.The Jhajjar centre, which was under scrutiny after several high-ranking students appeared from there, recorded 58% attendance with 287 of the 494 candidates appearing for the re-exam.
a senior NTA “At least 52% – 813 out of 1,563 – appeared for the re-examination on Sunday. No candidate appeared in Chandigarh, while the number was 291 in Chhattisgarh, one in Gujarat, 287 in Haryana and 234 in Meghalaya,” the official said.
The NTA said that based on the inputs, 17 candidates who appeared for the exam on May 5 from centres in Bihar have been debarred from the exam. “The total number of candidates debarred from the exam this year has gone up to 110,” the NTA official said.
Earlier, the agency had debarred 63 candidates from the exam for allegedly using unfair means. On Saturday, 30 additional candidates from Godhra in Gujarat were debarred from the exam.
67 students had scored 720 marks in the NEET-UG exam, unprecedented in the history of the NTA, including six students from a centre in Faridabad, Haryana, raising suspicion of irregularities. It was alleged that the 67 students shared the top rank because of grace marks. Later, the Supreme Court ordered the cancellation of grace marks and gave the option of re-examination.
Around 24 lakh candidates appeared for the NEET-UG exam held on May 5 at 4,750 centres. The results were initially scheduled for June 14 but were delayed to June 4 due to early completion of answer sheet evaluation.
Exam scam: Odisha girl travelled 600 km, J&K doctor spent Rs 12,000 on hotel and travel
Some were clueless, some didn’t know what to believe so they reached the exam centres, and some were hoping to get an answer to their next question – what will be the next exam date?
There was no clarity of any kind. At the exam centres, each candidate reiterated the other’s confusion and anxiety, and their distress grew as the days of the academic calendar ticked by. Resentment was expressed towards the National Testing Agency (NTA), which many candidates called “irresponsible”.
Among the 2 lakh candidates who appeared for NEET-PG, there were many who had travelled long distances and reached exam centres with carefully nurtured dreams — like Neha Tabassum, who came to Noida from Jammu with her husband, spending Rs 12,000 on tickets and hotel, money that went to waste. “I learnt only when I was on my way to the exam centre in the morning that the exam had been postponed. It took two years to prepare and this would have been my second attempt. What kind of exam system is this? It is disappointing,” she said.
Sunanda Pansari, who came to an exam centre in Bhubaneswar, 600 km from Kalahandi in Odisha, said it was extremely disappointing that the exam dates had been changed four times. “This is extremely wrong. I have travelled 600 km to appear for the exam. We should have been informed about this decision at least 24 hours in advance. There is no information from the government yet about the paper leak as well,” she said, referring to the NEET-UG controversy.
K Nageswara Rao, whose son was to take the exam in Visakhapatnam, travelled 200 km from East Godavari to reach the Andhra Pradesh capital. “It was a big shock,” he said about the sudden cancellation. “Nobody knows when the next exam will be held. My son quit his job to prepare for a year. Now, he doesn’t know what to do, go back to work immediately or wait till the exam dates are announced,” he said.
Shankha Mandal, a medical officer in the railways, was scheduled to take the NEET-PG exam at a centre in Kolkata but was similarly worried. “It is very difficult to prepare for such a tough competitive exam while being fully employed. The indefinite wait for the next date is painful,” he said.
Speaking outside iON Digital Zone in Noida, one of the exam centres in Delhi-NCR, K Murali from Bangalore, who is staying in Delhi to prepare for NEET PG, said the exam dates have already been changed thrice and the uncertainty has added to the stress levels. “The first date for NEET PG this year was March 3, then it was postponed to July 7 and then further to June 23. Now, it has been postponed till further notice, this time just 12 hours before the exam. This uncertainty is extremely stressful. The exam system and management need to think from the student’s perspective,” he said.
Criticising the NTA, whose director general Subodh Singh was removed by the government on Saturday evening as the nodal exam body grapples with the crisis, Atul, an MBBS graduate from Delhi, asked, “How can one carry forward education in such a volatile and mismanaged scenario? This is the third major exam to be cancelled within a week after UGC-NET and CSIR-UGC NET.”
Ankit, another MBBS graduate from Ghaziabad, said that he had quit his job to prepare for NEET PG. He said, “I am surprised by the uncertainty surrounding a national exam like NEET.”
Delhi resident Neelam Upadhyay was aware of the exam postponement but felt she couldn’t believe anything until she saw it for herself as there was a lot of misinformation going around. So, she came to the Noida centre. “I just came to check whether the information about the exam cancellation was real or fake,” she said.
Renu Agarwal, the chief medical superintendent of Noida’s district hospital, was also present, but not as a government representative but as a mother. Her son had to take the NEET PG exam. She said, “If they wanted to postpone the exam for security reasons, they should have done it earlier, giving time to the students. Many students faced problems due to this sudden change.”
Ankita, a candidate from Gurgaon, said the postponement of the exam was painful but “it is better than writing the paper again if it gets leaked.”
Outside an exam centre in Jaipur, Yash Dubey, a practising doctor, said the delay will prove costly for some candidates. “There are many candidates who are opting for the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) counselling to get a PG seat in AIIMS. Those who get a seat through INI-CET but give it up have to pay Rs 3 lakh. Now, because of the delay in NEET-PG, candidates who were thinking of improving their rank and getting a seat in their desired course in AIIMS will have to take a seat in whatever course they have currently got through INI-CET. This will at least get them a PG seat. However, later if they get their desired course through NEET-PG, they will have to give up the INI-CET seat and for that they will have to pay Rs 3 lakh. How is this fair?”
(With inputs from Uma Mahesh in Vizag, Nirupa Vatyam in Hyderabad, Suparna Roy in Jaipur and Poulami Roy in Kolkata)
