CHENNAI: Neet aspirants for PG exam scheduled on January 7 next year seem troubled by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) website as students from Tamil Nadu are facing various problems while they log in and selecting examination centres (testing seats). Applications for Neet for PG courses released on October 31 led to chaos over testing seats as centres in Chennai, Kerala and other centres in Tamil Nadu were unavailable after around six hours of the release of application.
“OBC candidates had trouble logging in and pay for the application for many days after the application was released. Students were unable to choose the examination centres due to this. The issue was rectified after a few days only to find that the examination centres in the state of correspondence address of the candidate were not available for the students,” said Dr R Rabindranath, chairperson, Doctors Association of Social Equality.
Over eight lakh students across the state are appearing for the exam and centres were inadequate for such a large number of students. After many applicants raised the issue, NBE released a notification stating, “Applicant candidates for Neet-PG 2018 may note that more testing seats are being released in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The testing seats will be released within 48 hrs.”
However, even after the release of extra testing centres, the issue has not yet resolved and students are facing problems opting for testing seats. Many students say that NBE should have been prepared accordingly. “In panic state, we opted for centers in northern states like Bihar, UP, Uttarakhand and other states after the payment was made. NBE should have mentioned about the release of additional centers in case the centers are filled in the prospectus before hand. Long distance travel for appearing in an examination will not only increase the mental stress, but has increased expenses manifold for aspirants,” said V Madhavi, an aspirant from Tamil Nadu.
When contacted, senior officials representing NBE in state said that if the need arises, more testing seats would be released in TN. Other state students studying in TN have also asked for centers in TN itself, which has increased the burden. “However, as stated by NBE, efforts are being made to ensure that the candidate is allotted a testing centre in the state of correspondence address of the candidate, or in a nearby state,” he said.
