. NEET-PG is an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination for admission to various MD/MS and PG Diploma Courses as per Section 61(2) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 read with Chapter IV of Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023.
New Delhi: The NEET PG 2024 examination has been fraught with controversy this year, with issues ranging from postponements to the release of revised date sheets. Recently, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences(NBEMS) issued the NEET PG Test City Slip 2024. However, some medical students are not satisfied with the allocation of exam centres far from their homes. Candidates have reported that some centres are located as far as 1,000 km away, leading to widespread demands for relocating the centres to the first preferred city listed in their application forms. It is to be noted that the scheme for selection and allocation of test cities is as follows.
- Candidate shall be required to provide choices for four preferred test cities where he/she wish to appear for the examination. These test cities will be selected from the available test cities within the state of correspondence address indicated by the candidate in his/her NEET-PG 2024 application form.
- Wherever the number of available test cities in a State/UT of correspondence address are less than four or the demand of testing seats is exceeding the available capacity in the state of correspondence address, the candidate shall be offered to choose from the test cities of nearby States/UTs.
- Allocation of the test city to a candidate will be done randomly from the choices provided, and these four choices will not be considered as an order of preference of test cities.
- It is possible that a test center cannot be provided in any of these four preferred test cities due to reasons such as overcapacity, logistical, administrative, or security reasons. In such cases: The candidate will be allocated a test center in one of the nearest available locations within the state of correspondence address or in nearby states/ UT.
- If no test center can be allocated within the state of correspondence address or in a nearby state as well, the applicant shall be allocated a test center in any part of the country based on availability.
- Candidates who will fail to provide any preferences regarding the test cities during this online window shall be allocated a test centre by NBEMS anywhere in the country.
- The allocation of the test center is subject to availability and the decisions made by NBEMS. NBEMS reserves its right to add a new city (other than those listed above) for conduct of examination or to delete an offered city due to security and/or logistic reasons.
Sharing a post on X(previously Twitter), a NEET PG aspirant wrote, “My test centre of neetpg 2024 is allowed far from my home address nearly approx 450km and also several areas of the route are affected by the flood.i requests nbe to please reallocate the test centre near to my home district which was my 1st and 2nd choice in the given options.”
@Urgent Appeal to @JPNadda @MoHFW_INDIA @NMC_IND @MSJEGOI @India_NHRC :Address the abrupt #NEETPG 2024 changes causing undue stress.
Ensure fair exam center allocations & accessible conditions,@NbeIndia should be reformed or replaced#NEETPG2024 #StudentRights #MedicalEducati— Tinku yadav (@Tinkubhamisara) August 3, 2024
Echoing similar concerns, another user wrote,”@Urgent Appeal to @JPNadda @MoHFW_INDIA @NMC_IND @MSJEGOI @India_NHRC :Address the abrupt #NEETPG 2024 changes causing undue stress. Ensure fair exam center allocations & accessible conditions, @NbeIndia should be reformed or replaced #NEETPG2024#StudentRights #MedicalEducati.”
“Last time got a centre 10 kms away and now they have alloted a centre 1000 km away which wasnt even in my 4 options in up which is such a remote area even though i filled it on the first day.. what kind of arrangement is this? Can someone pls take any action,” wrote a third user.
Last time got a centre 10 kms away and now they have alloted a centre 1000 km away which wasnt even in my 4 options in up which is such a remote area even though i filled it on the first day.. what kind of arrangement is this? Can someone pls take any action#NEETPG2024 #nbems
— Anandita (@rayanandita70) July 31, 2024
Please do Justice with #NEETPG aspirants. Thrissur (Kerala) Neet Pg Exam City.😟#NeetPG_mismanagement #NEETPG2024 #NEET_परीक्षा pic.twitter.com/uKg6OH18Vm
— Sajit Khan (@SajitKhan0027) August 2, 2024
Earlier on Friday, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal raised with Health Minister J P Nadda the issue of “impractical changes” in the examination centres of NEET-PG candidates from Kerala and ensure they are allotted centres within their state or in nearby locations. In a letter to Nadda, the MP from Kerala’s Alappuzha said he wanted to bring to his urgent attention the plight of numerous candidates from Kerala and elsewhere who have applied for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for postgraduate medical courses (NEET-PG).
These aspirants have been subjected to a series of “distressing and impractical” changes regarding their examination centres and dates, culminating in a situation that demands immediate rectification, Venugopal added, news agency PTI reported. “This situation has left around 1,000 candidates from Kerala with exam centers in places like Tirupati and Visakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, and many others in similar circumstances. The announcement of exam centres just 11 days before the exam date has created significant logistical challenges,” he said, PTI reported.
My letter yesterday to Health Minister @JPNadda on a critical issue affecting #NEET-PG aspirants from Kerala. The meeting referred to has taken place this afternoon and the Minister has promised sympathetic action to resolve the problem. pic.twitter.com/eIKpwWzk1z
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 2, 2024
Sharing a post on X, Shashi Tharoor on Thursday raised with Health Minister J P Nadda. “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. In addition, the recent catastrophic landslides in Wayanad, Kerala, intensify the situation, as increased travel for those in affected areas poses severe safety and health risks that cannot be overlooked,” Tharoor said.
NEET-PG 2024 will be held on August 11, 2024 in two shifts. NEET-PG is an eligibility-cum-ranking examination prescribed as the single entrance examination for admission to various MD/MS and PG Diploma Courses as per Section 61(2) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 read with Chapter IV of Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023.