Santosh Kumar Yadav, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, traveled for more than 24 hours and switched two buses to cover a distance of 700-odd kilometers to reach Kolkata for his National Eligibility and Income Test (NEET). Unfortunately, he was 10 minutes late.
Yadav was not allowed to enter the test center at a school in Salt Lake, a municipality located east of Kolkata.
“I begged the authorities but they told me I was late. The exam started at 2 pm. I got to the center around 1:40 p.m. The last deadline to enter the center was 1.30 pm, ”Yadav told a local television channel. “I lost a year,” he added.
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Incidentally, NEET examinees were asked to report in at least three hours in advance in light of the time required for health and safety checks amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Describing his ordeal, the student said: “I boarded a bus in Darbhanga at 8 am on Saturday to get to Muzaffarpur. From there I took a bus to Patna, but there was a traffic jam on the route and I was almost six hours late. “
“I took another bus from Patna at 9 pm. The bus dropped me off near Sealdah station (in Kolkata) at 1.06pm. A taxi took me to the test center, ”Yadav said.
School officials could not be reached, but the inconvenience NEET test takers faced became a subject of political debate, as many had to shell out a large amount of money to travel from one part of the state to another in rented cars.
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“The Supreme Court (although it dismissed a petition for delaying NEET and JEE) said that students should receive all aid to travel and find accommodation. During the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), the examinees in West Bengal had to face many difficulties and the prime minister had said that 70 percent of them could not take the exam. This government has absolutely no sympathy for the students, ”said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state chairman Dilip Ghosh.
The state government did not deny that the examinees had to face an arduous task Sunday.
“We knew that the students would face problems. The metro can transport them within Kolkata, but what about those in other districts? Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee canceled the state lockdown on Saturday just to help students travel. But they were still facing problems due to the pandemic situation, ”said Trinamool State Education Minister and Secretary General of the Trinamool Congress, Partha Chatterjee.
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