Tamil Nadu: Two girls briefly denied entry into NEET centres over metal buttons
Around 1.5 lakh students appeared for the exam held in 31 districts across the State
Hundreds of students standing outside the Asan Memorial Higher Secondary School, Thousand Lights, on Sunday
CHENNAI: The National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) was held across the country for more than 22 lakh students on Sunday. The exams were held in 5,400 exam centres across the country.
According to reports, around 1.5 lakh students appeared for the exam across the State in 31 districts. Some districts including Theni, Perambalur, Kallakurichi, Tirupattur, Mayiladuthurai, Tenkasi and Ranipet did not have exam centres. The students had to attempt 200 questions within 3 hours (2-5 pm).
In Tirupur, two girls had arrived at the exam centre wearing an attire that had two metal buttons on them. This was against the NEET rules, due to which their entry to the exam centre was restricted.
One of the girl’s family helped her remove the buttons with a razor. When the other family tried to remove the buttons from her dress, it tore leaving the candidate in tears. A policewoman consoled her, took her to a nearby shop on her two-wheeler, bought her a new dress and took her back for the exam. In another incident, a girl had to remove her nose pin to attend the exam.
Congress leader Karti P Chidambaram took to his X handle and said, “Most ridiculous and absurd dress code regulations,” tagging the National Testing Agency on the Tirupur incident.
Reports said that in an exam centre in Avadi, disruption of power supply for two hours left the students writing in the dark.
At the Central Institute of Petrochemical Engineering and Technology, one of the exam centres in Chennai, some students were found leaving the centre as they were not allowed entry due to late arrival.
A NEET aspirant, Ilakkiya, from Adyar said, “Chemistry and biology exams were moderate. But the physics exam was difficult.”
Concurring with her was Anish Samuesl, another student, who added: “Overall, the paper was easy and questions were fully from the NCERT textbook. Biology paper was very easy, chemistry was moderate and physics was time consuming.”
Another candidate suggested that invigilators must conduct verifications and get signatures before the exam began instead of “interrupting us when we’re writing the exam. We’re already stressed, and this interrupts the flow,” said Jaiswin G.