Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) Shashi Tharoor has requested Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda to resolve the issues of faraway examination centres the two-shift examination and the normalisation/standardisation of results for the upcoming NEET PG 2024 examination which is scheduled to be held on 11th August.
In a letter to the Union Minister, Tharoor stated that he was “deluged with representations from innumerable NEET PG aspirants” and that he is convinced of the major problem.
The MP said that aspirants have to travel long distance, some even spanning thousands of kilometres, to appear the examination. He pointed out that the factors of weather, challenges of ticket availability, shortage of affordable accommodation and concerns of security and safety place these doctors in an untenable situation. “If we are to have national exams, we ought to be able to authorise enough centres in every state, especially given the manageable number of aspirants, allowing candidates to take the exam from centres easily accessible from their places of education or residence”, he added.
Tharoor also raised concerns about the announced two-shift examination, with two different papers in two shifts and the normalisation/standardisation of results and said, “The whole idea of a national examination is vitiated unless it is one test on one date everywhere across India.”
He therefore urged the Union Minister to look into the issues and resolve them at the earliest. “For if the NEET PG 2024 is allowed to go through as it is, it will severely imperil the future of our doctors,” Tharoor stated.
It may be noted that the exam centres for NEET PG have been removed from Nagaland and despite pleas of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Lok Sabha MP Supongmeren Jamir to the Union Minister, they have not been reallocated.
Read more: CM Rio urges Union Health Minister to reallocate NEET-PG exam centres in Nagaland