NEW DELHI: The Union government, on Saturday, issued a clarification over controversy of NEET aspirants from Tamil Nadu being allocated examination centres outside the state, saying that some students had to face inconvenience due to “remarkable rise” in number of candidates this year.
“Tamil Nadu has registered a 31 per cent increase in candidates for NEET 2018 over that of 2017. The CBSE, which conducts the test, has therefore increased exam centres from 149 in 2017, to 170 this year in light of this surge,” said a Union Human Resources Development ministry statement.
It added that 1,07,288 candidates of the state were allocated to 170 centers within Tamil Nadu which meant that an additional 25206 candidates were accommodated in the state itself, as compared to 2017.
“Despite best efforts to accommodate the increased numbers of NEET aspirants this year, exam centres fell short for few candidates not only in Tamil Nadu, but in other states too,” the statement said.
“Therefore, 3,685 Tamil Nadu aspirants from Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelvelli were allocated centres in nearest centers of Ernakulum, which are closer than centers in Chennai. Similarly several aspirants from other states also allocated nearest centers in neighbouring states, as was done in previous years”.
No NEET 2018 aspirants from Tamil Nadu are allocated centers in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Sikkim etc, unless themselves asked for these centres, the ministry said.
All 24, 720 NEET 2018 aspirants from the state who have opted for Tamil as medium have been allocated centers within the state, it further added.