NEET PG 2022 Postponement Demand Escalates

New Delhi: The demands for postponing the PG medical entrance examination, NEET-PG 2022 is escalating day by day as the All India Medical Students' Association (AIMSA) is planning to approach the Supreme Court on May 4 in this matter.

Confirming this, the National President of AIMSA, Dr. Jitendra Singh Tweeted, "@official_aimsa will file a petition for postponement of NEET PG2022 in the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 4th May 2022. #AIMSA will always fight justice for medical students. We request all medical associations to join in this fight for justice for medical students."

Meanwhile, supporting the demands for deferring the exam, the doctors under the umbrella of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has already written to the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. In fact, the president of FAIMA also arranged polls for taking opinions from the medical fraternity regarding the issue. The Twitter poll revealed that around 85 per cent people are in favour of deferring the exam.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that referring to the insufficient gap between the NEET PG 2021 counselling and the NEET PG 2022 date, the aspirants for the PG medical entrance test had recently written to the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind and sought deferment of the examination by at least two months.

Now, association is planning to approach the Apex Court with the prayers for postponement. The confirmation in this regard came from the National President of AIMSA, Dr. Jitendra Singh, who mentioned in a Tweet that they would approach the top court bench on May 4.

Apart from urging all the Medical Associations to join this fight, Dr. Singh has also invited opinions on the points which can be raised in the petition before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the demands for postponement has received support from the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) as well. Writing to the Union Health Minister regarding this issue, FAIMA mentioned, "... due to COVID pandemic, there was a delay in conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-PG) 2021 examination in order to ensure the availability of a larger number of qualified doctors for COVID duties. Scheduled for April 2021, the examination was finally conducted in September 2021, five months after the scheduled date. As a result of this delay, the candidates who wrote the NEET-PG 2021 have lost practically a year of their careers."

The association pointed out how the counselling of NEET PG 2021 was postponed time and again and mentioned, "Counselling was scheduled to begin on October 25, 2021, however, some students moved to the Supreme Court against the introduction of two categories of reservation of seats, 27% for the Other Backward Classes- Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL) and 10% for the Upper-caste Economically Weaker Sections (Case W.P(C) No. 000961/2021 registered on 28-08-2021). The Counselling process was put on hold pending the Supreme Court's decision which was scheduled for 6th January 2022."

"Following a lengthy wait, the counselling was initiated on 12th January and was anticipated to be completed by the end of the March 2022. Nevertheless, to our dismay, due to a Supreme Court ruling on 31st March, 2022, the Mop-Up round that was conducted in March 2022 was cancelled and a notification was issued by MCC for a Special Counselling Round for 146 PG seats that were added in the Mop-Up round for PG admissions in 2021. According to notification, this round was supposed to conclude by 4th April 2022. As a result of the delayed counselling schedule, NEET PG 2022 was deferred from April 2022 to May 2022, so that the candidates could appear for the final stray vacancy round of NEET PG 2021 Counselling (for All India Quota as well as State Counselling) and if they failed to get a seat, they could have plenty of time for preparation and re-appear for the next NEET-PG exam," it added.

"To add to the stress of NEET PG 2021 aspirants, MCC announced on 30 April 2022 that the Provisional Stray Vacancy Round of NEET PG Counselling (the results of which had been previously announced on 29 April, 2022) was made 'NULL & VOID', and the final result of the stray vacancy will be released on May 2, 2022. As soon as this is completed, State Governments can conduct a Mop-Up Round. Several States have already released dates for the same. most of which revolve around the middle of May 2022," further mentioned FAIMA.

Reminding the services rendered by these doctors during the pandemic, the association stated in the letter, "In the wake of so many barriers to overcome, the candidates of NEET PG 2021 deserve a fair chance to participate in the ongoing counselling process and also get adequate time to prepare for the upcoming NEET-PG 2022. An outcome like this can only be achieved if the concerned authorities take into consideration the chaos created during this counselling process and empathize with the candidates. Such an outcome can only be accomplished if they allow a deferral of the NEET PG 2022 examination so that justice can be served to these hard-working candidates, who formed the main support system of the country during the COVID crisis and provided their best efforts to ensure the safety of the citizens."

Urging the Union Health Minister to intervene, FAIMA added, "Since the NEET PG examination date is 21st May 2022, we urge the concerned authorities to look into this matter urgently and further postpone the NEET PG 2022 for a reasonable period of time so that the current NEET PG 2021 aspirants have sufficient time to prepare for NEET PG 2022 examination."

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the matter, Dr. Rohan Krishnan, the president of FAIMA said, "It is very important to hear the plea of aspirants. Their concern is very genuine. NEET PG is one of the toughest exam a doctor has to go through. Preparation do take around an year but its very volatile. One has to read up again and again. So last two three weeks of the exam becomes very crucial. We cannot expect them to attend the counselling and at the same time sit for the exam."

Also Read: Postpone NEET PG 2022: Doctors threaten to surrender Medical Degrees, write to President