Candidates dropping out of NEET PG 2025? Kerala aspirants hit by exam centre allocation chaos
NEET PG 2025 Exam Centres
Thiruvananthapuram: This year, the National Eligibility-Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025 examination is scheduled to be conducted on August 3, 2025. With hardly two days left for the exam, the aspirants, who have been allotted exam centres outside the State, will have to make their travel and lodging arrangements to reach the exam centre on time.
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.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about the exam centre chaos regarding the NEET PG 2025 examination. Candidates from Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu have reportedly been allotted centres in their neighbouring seats, leaving no choice for the candidates but to travel for hours just to appear in the exam. Upset over such allocations, candidates and their parents have been expressing their grievances on social media platforms.
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.
"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.
