NEET PG 2024 exam centre ‘1,000 km away’: Shashi Tharoor urges Centre to review allocation

NEW DELHI: With just a week left for NEET PG 2024, candidates have been flooding social media with requests to change the ‘far-off’ exam centres. Voicing support to the NEET PG aspirants, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor wrote a letter to Union minister of health and family welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda to “urgently review the centre allocation for NEET-PG to ensure that students do not have to travel to other states or cover inordinately long distances”.

The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) will be conducting the National Eligbility-cum-Entrance Test for postgraduate (NEET PG 2024) exam on August 11. NEET PG postponement, last-minute revision of exam pattern, change in exam centre have contributed to the ordeal faced by the aspirants. This has also raised concerns on the conduct of the PG medical entrance exam.

Several MPs and student groups have also requested the health ministry to review the exam centre allocation for NEET PG exam 2024.

Shashi Tharoor wrote: “As I am sure you would agree, the last-minute postponement of the NEET-PG examination to August 11, 2024 has already caused much distress to the medical aspirants. Now, to add insult to injury, mandating the candidates to travel long distances on short notice, up to 800-1000 kilometers in some cases, will surely impose a significant financial and logistical burden on them as well as their families, especially for the economically weaker sections.”

“I have received numerous representations from students in Kerala, who have been shockingly allotted centres in Andhra Pradesh, over a 1000 kilometers away. To make matters worse, there is a severe shortage of tickets for both flights and trains on the required dates,” he said.

He also highlighted the recent catastrophic landslides in Wayanad, Kerala, intensifying the situation, “as increased travel for those in affected areas poses severe safety and health risks that cannot be overlooked”.

Stating that the exam holds significant importance for medical aspirants, medical profession and healthcare infrastructure. “As such, it is imperative that the examination is conducted in a fair and equitable manner. I hope you will give this request your kind and sympathetic consideration. I will also seek a meeting with you, together with the concerned MPs from Kerala, on this issue,” he added.