Authorities in Rajasthan’s Kota district have asked coaching institutes to stop conducting routine tests of students preparing for NEET and other competitive exams for the next two months in the wake of suicides by a number of aspirants.

Over two lakh students move to Kota annually to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges.

According to authorities, 22 students preparing for competitive exams in the district have ended their lives so far in 2023 — the highest for any year. Last year, the figure was 15.

Two students ended their lives on Sunday, in a span of four hours.

Avishkar Shambaji Kasle (17) jumped off the sixth floor of his coaching institute’s building in Jawahar Nagar at around 3.15 pm, minutes after walking out of a room after taking a mock NEET test, police said.

A native of Maharashtra’s Latur district and a Class 12 student, Kasle was preparing for NEET UG in the city for three years and was living in a rented room in the Talwandi area with his maternal grandparents, CO Singh said, adding that his parents are government school teachers in Maharashtra.

Adarsh Raj (18), who was also preparing for the competitive exam, hanged himself in his rented flat in the Kunhadi police station area at around 7 pm, they said.

Raj, a native of Bihar’s Rohtas district, had been preparing for NEET UG in a coaching institute in Kota for a year and was living in a rented 2BHK flat with his sister and cousin brother, who are also preparing for competitive exams, police said.

According to police, no suicide notes were recovered from either of the students’ rooms.

The reason behind the two latest suicides is that the aspirants were apparently under pressure for scoring low marks during routine tests conducted by the coaching centres.

Kasle was scoring well earlier but dropped from 575 marks to 288 marks in the last routine test, CO Singh said.

Raj, who also took a routine test at his coaching institute in Kunhadi police station area limits in the noon session on Sunday, was reportedly scoring low marks in the tests and was upset over the same, ASP (Kota city) Bhagwat Singh Hingad said while speaking to media in the mortuary of MBS hospital, where the 18-year-old’s body was placed for post-mortem.

Kota district collector O P Bunkar, in an order issued Sunday night, asked the coaching institutes to stop holding routine tests for the next two months.

He said the directions were passed to provide “mental support” to students.

The institute’s staff rushed Kasle to a hospital but he succumbed on the way, Vigyan Nagar Circle Officer (CO) Dharmveer Singh said.