Postpone NEET-PG! Shashi Tharoor urges govt to defer June 23rd exam amid NEET-UG irregularities: ‘Hundreds of people…’

Amid the ongoing controversy over the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) examination, Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor urged the central government to postpone the NEET-PG exams scheduled to take place on 23 June.

Shashi Tharoor also cited the prevalent heatwave-like conditions in northern India as another concern for the candidates appearing in the upcoming examination conducted by the National Testing Agency and National Board of Examinations (NBE).

“Given the allegations surrounding the conduct of NEET-UG exams, I urge the Government to postpone NEET-PG scheduled on June 23rd,” wrote Shashi Tharoor on X.

In his social media post, Tharoor pointed out how large number of candidates from Kerala travel to other states to appear in the NEET-PG examinations because of shortage of seats in examination centres in the state.

“Additionally, as an MP from Kerala, I must point out that due to the shortage of seats in examination centres here, hundreds of people from the Southern states of India are forced to come North to take this exam — and the current severe heatwave situation in the North, which has taken the lives of over 100 people in the last 3 months, and resulted in some 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases, puts these students unnecessarily at risk,” he added.

NEET-UG examination controversy

The NEET-UG retest for 1,563 candidates will be held on Sunday, June 23. While conducting the examination, officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and Union education ministry will be present at the examination centres.

While hearing separate pleas on the NEET (Undergraduate)-2024 examination, the apex court had on June 18 said even if there was "0.001 per cent negligence" on the part of anyone in the conduct of the examination, it should be thoroughly dealt with.

The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.