The New Indian Express has reported that many of the candidates from Kerala have been allotted centres in States including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Several candidates have reportedly been assigned to locations hundreds of kilometers away.
Around 20,000 to 24,000 students from Kerala appear for the NEET PG exam every year. There are 13 exam centres in the State for conducting the online exam.
Even though NBEMS guarantees at least one exam centre in every district, available slots fill up quickly because there are around 20,000 aspirants from Kerala. While filling up the application, the candidates can choose a preferred city, and if it's unavailable, the system assigns a centre to the candidates near their home address. However, there is no guarantee for the same. While slots used to be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, this year, candidates were shocked as they were allegedly allotted random locations.
Also Read: NEET PG 2025 exam centre chaos: Aspirants decry cross-state allotments, urgent intervention sought
Amid this situation, some of the candidates from Kerala are being forced to drop out of appearing in the exam this year. Explaining the situation, a candidate from Thiruvananthapuram told The New Indian Express, "I’m not appearing for the exam this time. I’ve been allotted a centre in Telangana, and I’m eight months pregnant. The travel and stay costs are too high for me and my family." "Other young mothers in my batch are opting out too. We’ve paid Rs 4,000 for the application, and now we’re forced to abandon the attempt," she added.
TNIE has reported that as per the surveys conducted by several junior doctor associations, approximately 1,000 applicants from Kerala were allotted centres outside the State. What caused even more difficulty was the fact that there was uncertainty over the exam venue details, which was only disclosed two days before the exam i.e. on July 31.
Commenting on this, the State President of the General Practitioners Association, Dr. Ashik Basheer, said, "If I had received Kollam as my centre, I could reach anywhere nearby without issues. But with a location like Visakhapatnam, I don’t even know how close the centre will be to a hotel. How do we plan ahead?" Many of the aspirants have also voiced concerns over inflated travel and accommodation prices.
Amid this situation, the State Secretary of the IMA Junior Doctors' Network, Kerala, Dr Vivek K B has urged the NBEMS to reopen the portal for centre change, allowing them to select more practical options.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had requested Union Health Minister last month to intervene in the issue of exam centre allocation as MP Tharoor highlighted that the aspirants in Kerala, who are appearing in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025 examination, could not opt for any exam centres within their State.
This year, highlighting the problems faced by the aspirants from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, doctors' associations, including Tamil Nadu Resident Doctors' Association (TNRDA), United Doctors Front (UDF), and Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors' Network (IMA-JDN), had urged the authorities to reconsider their decision regarding centre allocations and allow such candidates to choose nearby centres.
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