NEET PG 2024 Dates to Be Announced by tomorrow: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing confusion regarding the possible date for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 examination, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan recently said that the National Board of Examinations (NBE) will announce the new date for the PG medical entrance examination by "Monday or Tuesday".

The Union Education Minister made this statement on Saturday in Haryana's Panchkula ahead of an event where the Union Home Minister Amit Shah was due to address the BJP executive meeting of party workers, Indian Express has reported.

NEET PG 2024 was postponed at the last minute by the Union Health Ministry as a precautionary measure. While the exam was scheduled to be held on 23rd June, 2024, Ministry postponed it on 22nd June, 2024, around 12 hours before the exam was about to take place.

The exam was cancelled amid the allegations of the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak and the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam. The Ministry had stated in a release, "Taking into consideration, the recent incidents of allegations regarding the integrity of certain competitive examinations, Ministry of Health has decided to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG Entrance Examination, conducted by National Board of Examinations for medical students. It has accordingly been decided, as precautionary measure to postpone the NEET-PG Entrance Examination, scheduled to be held tomorrow i.e. 23rd June, 2024."

Also Read: Breaking News: NEET PG postponed at the last minute, fresh dates to be announced

Recently, NBE President Dr. Abhijat Sheth informed Indian Express that the new date for the NEET-PG 2024 examination would be announced "hopefully before next weekend.". He had further informed that a plan had been shared with the Union Ministry of Education and after getting approval from the Ministry, a new exam date would be intimated to the students.

As per the latest media report by Indian Express, now the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has informed that NBE will announce the new date for NEET PG 2024 by "Monday or Tuesday". "To my knowledge, NBE will soon be announcing the date of the NEET PG exam by Monday or Tuesday…," he said. The minister made the statement on Saturday in Haryana's Panchkula ahead of an event where Union Home Minister Shah was to address the BJP executive meeting of the party workers.

Before Shah's visit, the Education Minister was interacting with the media. The Minister, who is currently facing criticism for the allegations of paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 exam, addressed the issue and said, "though he was not justifying it, such discrepancies used to take place before 2014 as well."

"The President herself spoke about the exam…Yes, there are some challenges and we have to look into that and eradicate all the problems and the government is ready for a discussion on that. The Congress wants to run away from a discussion and wants to politicise the issue. Their only intent is to create chaos, confusion and create obstacles in the way of smooth functioning," he added.

Referring to Congress, the Minister added, "Ye avsar nahi hai rajnitik rotiyan sekhne ka… (This is not the time to play politics),"

Pradhan further informed the media about the steps taken by the Union Government such as the modification in the leadership at the National Testing Agency (NTA), setting up a high-powered committee under the former ISRO Chairman Dr. K Radhakrishnan to address the issues with the NTA, and introducing a new law to tackle with "public examination disruption".

He mentioned that the Government is concerned about the students' anxiety and will be doing its best to address the issue.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the representatives of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association met with the Union Health Minister Shri J P Nadda to discuss the key issues in medical education, including the NEET PG postponement.

Referring to this, the National Secretary of FORDA India, Dr. Meet Gohnia wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "We are thankful to Union Health Minister Shri @JPNaddafor fruitful discussion with FORDA delegation regarding key issues. Regarding NEET PG, he assured that new dates will be announced soon by NBE and ministry will take exam in transparent manner."

Also Read: NEET PG 2024 Likely to be Held in August: Report