Many med PG aspirants want NEET deferred

 Many med PG aspirants want NEET deferred

Cite Clash With Dates Of Counselling

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SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

21.01.2022

Bengaluru: A section of medical PG aspirants is caught in a dilemma: While PG NEET counselling for the 2021 batch is under way, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for 2022 is scheduled for March 12. Seeking a gap between the two, many want the exam to be postponed.

Students from several other states can’t even appear for NEET 2022 as it is mandated that aspirants complete in Students from Karnataka do not have this problem as they would complete internships by March.

Their concern, instead, is the clash of counselling dates and the next exam schedule, which is robbing them of precious time they could have used in preparation. Karnataka Examinations Authority has started the document-verification process. While it was offline until recently, on January19 KEA provided the option to upload documents online so as to help students testing positive for Covid-19 or those facing travel difficulties. “I am from Chintamani. While KEA took the document-verification process online a couple of days ago, my turn was before that and I had to travel all the way to Bengaluru. I lost two days in travel and the process,” said Dr M Reddy, an aspirant.

“Last year, when a similar problem had occurred, they had postponed the exam. We hope they do it now as well. We are spending a lot of time on the counselling process, including document verification, option entry, looking at college profiles among others. There is so much pressure,” said Dr Sarath from Dharwad.

The dilemma is bigger for students in borderline ranks. “Students ranking between 15,000 and 20,000 are facing a bigger problem. The mop-up round when some seats will be available will be around midMarch. Do we wait for the counselling or prepare for the exam? Had there been a gap af- ter the counselling, we would have been in a better position,” said Dr Satyajeet Das, who studied in Bengaluru. Process time-consuming The Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors joined the chorus from across the nation to say that exam postponement will be helpful for students. “We want it to be deferred by at least two months because students will be confused over whether to give the exam or attend counselling rounds. The counselling process takes a lot of time. It’s a bigger concern for students in borderline ranks,” said Dr Tejas J, president of the association.