NEET PG 2023: More than 9500 Aspirants sign online petition praying for postponement
New Delhi: Now that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has extended the MBBS internship deadline to August 11, the demands for postponement of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) Examination 2023 is escalating.
Already the a group of aspirants have started an online petition in this regard on change.org and it has already gathered more than 9,500 responses in favour of exam postponement.
Referring to the extended deadline for the MBBS Internship, the petition pointed out that the counselling will not happen before August. "According to this if we give exam on 5th March and counseling happens in August..then we have to idly waste our 5 to 6 months, that is almost half a year. Which will cause INJUSTICE to us and we will loose our valuable time," it added.
"We kindly request to higher officials that please give us our right by POSTPONING NEET-PG 2023 exam... instead of wasting our time waiting for 5-6 months, we want to utilise it studying so that by mere postponing exam, counseling can be held within 1month," the petition further mentioned.
Apart from this, several medical organisations have also come in the support of the aspirants and recently the Indian Medical Association (IMA) wrote to the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya urging him to defer the exam by two to three months.
The NEET-PG aspirants have been demanding the postponement of the exam for quite some time. Previously, NBE had announced that NEET PG 2023 will be held on March 05, 2023 and it had fixed the Internship deadline as March 31.
Since thousands of candidates were ineligible due to the Internship Deadline, NBE provided relief and extended the deadline to June 30, 2023. Even then several candidates could not clear the eligibility criteria for appearing in the PG medical entrance test.
Even after the postponement of the exam, several thousands of candidates remained ineligible for the exam. In Telangana alone, altogether 3000 students remained ineligible since the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) extended the internship completion date of MBBS students till August 11. Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) alone has about 200 interns who are now ineligible for writing the PG medical entrance test.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that taking up the issue of such candidates, FAIMA had written to the Union Health Minister on January 24, 2023 and mentioned, "Every year lakhs of post MBBS doctors appear in this exam chasing their dream. Each Medical Specialist doctors add to the strength of the ground doctor which helps the patient & society in their best possible ways they could they can and also who plays a significant role in providing strength to existing health care system of this country which has also been proved during the Covid Pandemic."
Also Read: Doctors protest at Jantar Mantar for postponement of NEET PG 2023 exam
Recently, Indian Medical Association also came in support of the aspirants. Writing to Union Health Minister, IMA in its letter dated February 6, 2023 referred to the hardships faced by the aspirants due to the local internship schedules and mentioned, "While we are entrusted with the task to bring uniformity & standardization in postgraduate examinations conducted in India, we must safeguard these basic objectives while framing the schedule for NEET PG."
Opining that wellbeing and welfare of the students should be the primary and only focus, IMA further added, "As requested by IMA Headquarters the issue of eligibility criteria for NEET PG 2023 was resolved by extending the date of completion of internship. But this also needs to synchronize with the actual examination date, which shall be convened after the completion of internship."
Seeking immediate meeting with the Health Minister for safeguarding the interests of all medical students and medical education in the country, IMA added, "NEET PG-2023 examinations date should be postponed by 2-3 months to safeguard the future of aspiring medical students."
Now, NBEMS has further extended the Internship Deadline of NEET PG aspirants till August 11 and therefore, the aspirants are complaining that they have to stand idle for four to five months since the counselling process cannot start before September, 2023.
Apart from initiating the online petition, the aspirants are also using hashtags such as #PostponeNEETPG2023, #NEETPG2023 on Twitter to urge the authorities for deferring the exam.
One Tweeter user wrote, "Earlier, I wasn’t too keen on #neetpg23postponment but now that eligibility has been extended till Aug, means that session can’t start before Sept. This would lead to a 5 month delay b/w the results & counselling, which will add to the frustration. Better to postpone."
"Students who are recently given eligibility should ask for time to prepare in supreme court. How can they sit in national level exam with 25 days preparation. Preponing the counselling won't be answer to it. They will have to postpone then," wrote another.
Meanwhile, the representatives of Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) met with the Union Health Minister in this regard and submitted a factual representation to the Health Minister , detailing the current situation and the impact it has on the students.
"We presented to them the various complaints & inquiries received by us & emphasized at the gap between the exam and subsequent counselling and the insufficient forethought and planning leading to this state of disarray and chaos amongst the aspirants," FORDA mentioned in a Press Release.
"Furthermore, we requested the Honourable Minister to take a constructive step in this direction & to clear the doubts of anxious students with a prompt communication," it added.
Also Read: NEET PG 2023, NEET MDS 2023: MBBS, BDS Internship Deadline Extended, details
