Dr Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader and Member of Lok Sabha took to X today, August 7 to bring to attention the problems faced by aspirants of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG 2024) admissions, due to the test city allotment by the National Board of Examinations for Medical Sciences (NBEMS). 

In his post, the Thiruvananthapuram MP (Member of Parliament) wrote that he was “deluged with representations”, and is “convinced there is a major problem here.” 

He also said, “After Kerala MPs met @JPNadda he resolved the issue for candidates from our state. But the rest of India has not been so lucky (.sic)”

Tharoor was responding to an aspirant on X, who shared the screenshot of a news article from Mint, that featured other aspirants of NEET PG alleging “mental torture” due to the centre allotments. 

Shedding light on the problems faced by the aspirants, he wrote that they were still being sent faraway distances to centres a thousand kilometres away and that challenges like the current weather conditions, lack of availability of tickets, shortage of affordable accommodation and concerns of security are making matters worse for aspirants. 

“If we are going to have national examination we ought to be able to authorise enough centres in every state, so that aspirants can take exams easily accessible from their places of education or residence (.sic),” he further wrote. 

He also raised concerns about the two-shift system, and the normalisation of marks as proposed by the NBEMS. “Such a process lends itself to confusion and allegations of manipulation. The whole idea of a national exam is vitiated unless it is one exam on one date everywhere throughout the country (.sic),” he wrote. 

Tagging Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda in his post, Tharoor urged the minister to “save our future medical specialists from this torture”.