Will surrender medical degrees, NEET-PG aspirants tell PM Modi. Blame NBE, MCC of "mismanagement"

In a letter addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aspirants of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) exam have demanded that the NEET PG 2022 exam scheduled for May 21 be postponed by a few weeks. The students claim that with the NEET PG 2021 counselling scheduled to end on May 3 and with some states set to take up counselling post that, the students will not be left with enough time to prepare for the NEET PG 2022 exam, if they do not secure a seat in the ongoing counselling for NEET-PG 2021. 

The students also claim that changes had been made in the schedule for NEET-PG 2021 counselling up to seven times by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), which includes the recent cancellation of the Mop-Up rounds on the order of the Supreme Court. 

The letter to the Prime Minister also adds that there are 5,000 NEET PG aspirants who will not be eligible for the NEET PG 2022 exam in May since they would not have completed their stipulated one year of internship by that time due to the fact that they were required to serve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There is no one showing empathy to COVID warriors in times of urgency," said the students in the letter. They also point out that according to directions given by the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) that conducts the NEET-PG, there should be a gap of about six to eight weeks between the counselling and the exam. This is not being ensured, the students say. They have called the timeline unfair. 

They have requested for the exam to be postponed by at least two months in order to avoid "devastating consequences of self-destruction". The students have also said that they would have no option but to lose a year of study and have threatened to return their medical degrees at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.