NEET aspirants apply in other states due to lack of seats in TN

Ramya S, an MBBS graduate, who is currently doing her internship did not wait long to apply for the Post Graduate NEET as soon as the applications were made available at 3 pm on October 31. “However, I realised that the seats in the seven centres in Tamil Nadu were getting filled so fast that I was left with no option but to apply to Mumbai. Though the applications are open till November 27, I see no point as the seats for the centres did not even last for a day. 

Within an hour or two, the site showed no availability of seats for Tamil Nadu,” Ramya said.  Event though the National Examination Board (NBE) states that over 12,500 seats have been allotted in six centres in Tamil Nadu, students continue to struggle to get seats here. Saradha P, another graduate completing her internship at Sri Ramachandra Medical College, too struggled to get a seat in Chennai, and had to eventually apply to Coimbatore. The selection committee has already received complaints and has contacted the Board. “We have been receiving complaints since November 1 from a number of students. We have sent a mail to the NBE requesting more centres be introduced owing to the inconvenience the students are facing.

The NBE said that our request is being considered,” Dr Selvaraj, Secretary, Selection Committee, said. Meanwhile, NBE officials said that considering the situation, the number of seats has been increased. “There are 129 centres across the country as compared to last year’s 41. We have already released 5,000 to 6,000 seats in the Southern states in the past few days, and we plan to increase more soon. The students want the exam to be a single day single session as opposed to the previous year’s multiple sessions to ensure they all get the same question paper,” said an official. He said the advantage of holding the exam in multiple sessions was that the number of seats would be multiplied. 

“Now as it is a single session exam, the number of seats has reduced. We cannot have it in just any place as computer labs, CCTV cameras and other logistics need to be considered. But, we are trying to increase the number of centres in Tamil Nadu and Kerala,” he added. Meanwhile, Dr Rashmikant Dave, vice president, NBE, told DTNext that they were not increasing the number of centres as of now, but the number of seats in the existing cities. “We were planning to increase the number of centres also, but if we do so right now, some students might feel it’s unfair. To avoid that, we are considering making the option available wherein, the applicant must give an option of another city in that state and we will allot them seats there,” he said. He added that as the Examination Board, they have to look into all the technical aspects too. “We have therefore not given the option of changing the cities post registration as it could result in dilemma among students,” Dave said.