The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has postponed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Super Specialty 2023 due to the 18th G20 summit scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10.
According to an official statement, a copy of which lies with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the NEET SS 2023, scheduled on September 9 and 10 across the country has been deferred in the wake of the 18th G20 Summit on September 9 and 10 in India and consequent travel restrictions in Delhi from September 8 to 10.
The NBEMS will notify of the revised schedule for the exam soon, an official said, adding that the candidates can write to NBEMS at its communication web portal.
The postponement has angered scores of postgraduate doctors who will need to reschedule travel plans to reach NEET-SS exam centres. They say the board should have factored in the G20 summit dates when it announced the exam dates on July 27.
The candidates from Kashmir told KNO that the postponement of exams has added to their miseries as they now will have to cancel their tickets which they had booked to appear in the examination.
They said if the examination centre had been in Srinagar, then they wouldn’t have faced such issues, but in the absence of the centre here, they are suffering.
After repeated requests to the NBE regarding the examination centre in Srinagar, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences said that the required standards of security aren’t being met at Srinagar to hold the NEET-SS examination.
The aspirants questioned that if the required standards of security are being met for conducting NEET-PG and UPSC examinations, why not for NEET-SS?
Dr Rubeena Bhat, incharge of the Resident Doctors Association of SKIMS Srinagar, told KNO that the National Board of Examination (NBE) authorities are not keeping the centre in Srinagar due to security reasons.
“If the standards for the UPSC centre at Srinagar are acceptable then why not for NEET-SS,” she asked.
The candidates reiterated that there is a need for an examination centre in Kashmir as well, where there are hundreds of candidates.
“In case no examination centre was being established in Kashmir, we will have to bear the financial strain of flight tickets, and hotel accommodations besides uncertainty due to the frequent closures on the highway,” they said.
They have requested the concerned authorities to look into the matter at the earliest and set up an examination centre in Srinagar as well so that they won’t face further inconvenience—(KNO)