The Union Health Ministry's decision to postpone the NEET-PG entrance examination, scheduled for June 23, has come as a blow to thousands of aspirants. The Ministry of Health said the decision was taken to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of the processes. However, the candidates, who were gearing up to appear for the exams, blamed the government for playing with their emotions.
United Medical Front Association national president Dr Lakshya Mittal called the decision to postpone the exams, just 10 hours before it was slated to be held "playing with the doctors' emotions." He added that India's medical education system has been "destroyed."
"This is another scam after NEET-UG...Candidates have travelled across states and canceling the exam 10 hours before schedule is nothing less than playing with the emotions of doctors," Mittal told ANI. He added that the authorities in charge of both NEET PG and NEET UG should be investigated.
"India's medical education system has been destroyed. The CBI probe into the NEET-UG issue is a commendable step," Mittal charged.
According to Jyoth Chouhan, a candidate from Gujarat's Vadodara, the National Testing Agency (NTA) should have announced the decision at least 10 days ago. " The NTA informed us about the decision at the last moment. If they had to reschedule, they could have done it at least a few days ago. They even failed to allot exam centres properly, candidates set out from far away places to these exam centres. Students from Vadodara had exam centres in Nashik and Madhya Pradesh. On arrival at these centres, they were informed that the exam had been postponed," Chouhan told ANI.
Another student from Jaipur rued the apathy on the part of the ministry. "The NEET-UG exam's paper got leaked, the NEET-PG was postponed 12 hours before the schedule and the NEET-SSC exam date has not been announced yet. This shows the lack of concern on the government's part. The Union Health Minister and Union Education Minister must apologise for what they have done. For, students and doctors have travelled a long way to the exam centres, incurring a lot of expense. On average, Rs 10,000 was spent by each candidate. The government must reimburse these expenditures," he added.
#WATCH | Jaipur, Rajasthan: On the postponement of NEET-PG exam, a candidate for the exam says, " ...NEET-UG exam's paper got leaked, NEET-PG was postponed 12 hours before, NEET-SSC exam date has not been announced yet. This shows how much govt is concerned about the health… pic.twitter.com/eQiokHdUYt
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2024
The Opposition parties also targeted the government for its alleged failure to hold the exam on time. "No day is complete without news of the cancellation of an exam because of the total incompetence of the non-biological PM and the people around him. The latest exam to be put off is NEET-PG, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow," Ramesh said in a post on 'X'.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) has claimed that the postponement of the NEET-PG entrance exam is a "failure" of the Centre and accused the government of playing with the lives of aspirants. "Due to the inability to do their job, the government is playing with the lives and future of children," NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) national spokesperson Clyde Crasto claimed in a statement on Saturday.
