CHENNAI: In a mistake that can confuse both the Tamil Nadu and Telangana students, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) mistakenly listed Khammam and Ranga Reddy, the two Telangana districts on the Tamil Nadu list on its information bulletin for Neet exam. As per the notification, this year the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) exam for MBBS and BDS courses will be conducted on May 6. The application process commences on Friday and it ends on March 9.
In a move to reduce the number of students writing Neet in Chennai, the CBSE has added Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur in the list of cities which can host Neet-2018 exam, thereby increasing the number of cities from 8 to 10 in the state. In a goof up, the board has listed Khammam and Ranga Reddy on the Tamil Nadu cities list. The centre code for Tamil Nadu cities starts at 5115 and ends 5126. In between, Khammam (5118) and Ranga Reddy (5121) were listed as Tamil Nadu cities.
“Generally, students will be careful while filling up the exam centres. But, this simple mistake should have been avoided as some students from the state may choose one of these two cities out of tension. CBSE should immediately correct the mistake,” a school headmaster said. The headmaster further said it, not only affect the Tamil Nadu students, it might affect the students from Telangana as they could not find these cities on their list. Career consultant and analyst Jayaprakash A. Gandhi differed on the issue. He said, “The students generally fill their online forms with either their parents or teacher’s guidance. So, there is little scope for the mistake.”
On the exam fees, he urged the state government to reimburse the Neet exam fee Rs 1,400 which is high for government school students. “All the students cannot pay the amount and write the exam. So, the Tamil Nadu government should take steps to reimburse the exam fees for government school students,” he said. Last year, 88,000 from the state appeared for the exam. Around 11 lakh students from all over the country wrote the medical entrance exam. In case of any mismatch in the Aadhaar number, name, date of birth and gender, candidates will not be able to fill up the form.
