A large chunk of applicants from the State for postgraduate medical entrance examination will have to write their NEET PG exam in other States this year. More than 12,000 doctors from the State are expected to apply for the NEET PG exam, for which there are only 1,700 candidate slots in four centres in Kerala.
A mad rush saw the servers of the National Board of Examinations (NBE) getting choked soon after the application time started at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Although the last date to apply is November 27, all the slots in Kerala were taken up within a couple of hours.
Many applicants were disappointed as the server remained choked for several hours. Complaints were made to the authorities in Delhi. “It is horrendous. They should provide enough centres and slots in accordance with the applicants in the State,” said Mohammed Ismail, a senior doctor here.
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IMA demand
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has demanded that more exam centres be opened in Kerala for the NEET PG exam to be held on January 7.
Although there are 129 centres across the country, only four have been allotted for Kerala, a State which has been topping not only in the number of applicants but in performance as well.
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IMA State president V.G. Pradeep Kumar and State secretary Samuel Koshy demanded that the State government intervene and pressurise the Centre for opening more exam centres in Kerala.
Shashi Tharoor, MP, has tweeted that he would write to the Union Minister for Human Resource Development and push for more centres and seats in Kerala.
The four centres allotted for Kerala are Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. While Kannur and Kozhikode have 250 seats each, Thrissur has 450 seats and Thiruvananthapuram 750 seats. Kochi has not been given a centre.
Doctors wondered that when the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) has 13 centres in the State for about 100 postgraduate medical seats it offers, the number of seats and centres the NBE offers for NEET PG in Kerala is abysmally fewer.
NEET PG is the sole examination for 15% Central seats and 85% State seats across the country. Besides, Diploma in National Board selection is also made through NEET.