Candidates have been advised to come to the exam centers with masks and disinfectants. However, they will be provided with three-layer masks once they enter the center. Candidates must wear the masks provided by the examining authority to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of the exam. Students from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh will be provided with government transportation. In Kolkata and Mumbai, Metro Railways and local trains will offer special services for NEET candidates. A group of alumni and students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has launched a portal to provide transportation facilities to the exam centers for candidates in need.
The 2020 NTA NEET exam comes after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition to postpone the exam amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. By refusing to postpone the exam, the court said that a “precious year” of students cannot be wasted and that life must go on.
Several opposition leaders, including Congressional Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, DMK President MK Stalin, and Delhi’s Chief Deputy Minister Manish Sisodia, had also required that NEET and JEE be postponed.
The test has also been controversial, with a rise in student suicides. An MBBS candidate from Madurai, Jyothy Sridurga, ended her life on Saturday, becoming the second Tamil Nadu student in a week to die by suicide out of fear and anxiety.
NEET had become a bitter social problem in Tamil Nadu in the wake of another suicide three years ago. Anitha, a strong performing student in her twelfth class, failed the exam and had moved the Supreme Court to challenge him. Her death had caused a stir across the state and firmly established anti-NEET sentiment in Tamil Nadu.
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