BENGALURU: It was sheer agony, tears and immense stress for over 250 students headed to Bengaluru on the Hubballi-Bengaluru-Mysuru Hampi Express to write the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) as they missed the exams on Sunday. The train reached the city at 2.37 pm, a full eight hours late, while the reporting time at the exam centres was 1.30pm.
The debacle took a political turn with Congress legislature party chief Siddaramaiah holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal responsible for Hampi Express’ prolonged delay which left the students in the lurch. Due to change in route and deviation, the train which, according to the Indian Railways website, was supposed to reach Bengaluru by 6.20 am on Sunday, arrived at the city railway station only at 2.37 pm.
“Mr. @narendramodi, You pat your own back for others’ achievements but will you also take the responsibility for your cabinet min’ incapabilities. Hundreds of students in Karnataka may not be able to take up NEET because of delay in the train services. Ask @PiyushGoyal to work properly for next few days and then we will set it right. Also, ensure that the aggrieved students get another chance to write NEET exam (sic)” tweeted Siddaramaiah, while launching a scathing attack on the Prime Minister as well as Railway minister.
Dozens of students took to Twitter, tagging the railway minister seeking help, but to no avail. The desperate students did everything possible as realisation sunk midway that they would not reach their centres in time to write the test that could change their destiny — abandoning the train midway and taking a bike or cab from Arasikere and Tumukuru to the City, tweeting to Railway and HRD Ministry, pleading with the TTE on board to do something — but nothing helped.
While South Western Railway put out the official figure of reserved students at 65 students who missed the exams due to the delay, they said a “good number would have travelled by the six unreserved coaches too”. Though the train began late from Hubballi, the hapless students on board the train (No. 16591) spent much of their time in the train on last-minute preparations poring over notes in the dim light inside train compartments.
Several students boarded at Ballari station too. When the train reached Ballari at 1.40 am on Sunday, instead of the scheduled time of 10.43 pm (on Saturday), they started to press the panic button. Making it worse, the train left Ballari only at 2.30 am. R S Rohit who had completed his PUC from Agragami Vidya Kendra in Ballari, alighted at Yeshwantpur. “Due to the delay at Ballari, a few of us thought of taking a bus to Bengaluru. There were very few buses as it was the dead of night and they were full too. A TTE on our coach assured us that we would surely reach Bengaluru before 10.30 am and will have enough time to reach our exam centre.” “However, as the journey got delayed, the same official told us, it was not in their hands anymore.
A few students became very emotional as the reality sunk in that we would not make it on time. I particularly felt sad for another student in my S6 coach who kept studying throughout the trip. It was near certain that none of us was going to make it by 1.30 pm,” said Rohit. Rajneesh, another aspirant, travelling in S7 coach, alighted disappointed at city railway station. “Many students took a cab from Arasikere; some did so from Tumukuru. I could not do so as cab drivers were asking for a very high fare. But even they could not reach on time. They called and informed us before we reached.” Sai Srinivas called his brother based in Bengaluru who dashed to Tumukuru railway station. “I travelled over 70 km pillion but I was refused entry as we reached late,” he said. Rumana pleaded to this reporter, “Please do something on our behalf and make the government conduct the exam again for us.”
CM asks Centre to hold re-test
Bengaluru: Political leaders, including Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, have called for a re-test to allow those who missed Sunday’s NEET to write the test on a fresh date. The South Western Railway too has decided to recommend a re-exam due to the delayed arrival of the Hubballi-KSR Bengaluru-Mysuru Express by over seven hours to Bengaluru. Medical education minister E Tukaram said the state will write to the Union government requesting a re-exam. “We will ensure that no injustice is meted out to students,” he said.