A representative image of a student writing an exam.
Credit: iStock Photo
New Delhi: The NEET-PG examination candidates have been given centres in their home states doing away with one of the long-held grievances of the students, Union Health Ministry officials have said, noting that nearly 500 centres have been identified for the examination.
Officials said only TCS centres have been chosen for the examination to be held on August 11 in two shifts. “This is because the number of examination centres have slashed from 1200 to around 500 so that only TCS centres are used. There will be no outsourcing to any other private centres,” they said.
Also the students have been given centres in their home states based on the addresses they wrote in the application form.
“Earlier the students were given the option to select different centres across the country to appear in the examination. Now they will appear in the examination in a centre either in their city or at a place close to the addresses they mentioned. A person will not have to travel from one corner of the country to another just to sit in the exam,” an official said.
The demand for home centres remains one of the contentious issues surrounding the nationwide medical entrance test with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor appealing to the Union Health Minister J P Nadda to ensure an adequate number of centres in every state.
In a letter to Nadda that Tharoor posted in the social media on Thursday, the Congress leader also drew the minister's attention to reports that the number of cities in which the tests would be conducted has been reduced significantly.
He said since the late evening of August 4, he has been deluged with representations from NEET-PG aspirants. "It appears that aspirants are still being constrained to travel faraway distances, in some cases, even spanning thousands of kilometres," Tharoor said.