HRD Ministry on Monday assured the Karnataka Government it would soon decide on their request to allow over 500 students from the State, who missed the NEET exam on Sunday due to a train delay. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the National Testing Agency will conduct NEET exam again for those students of Karnataka who missed their exam as their train was delayed which has come as a major relief to the candidates.
NEET for these students will be conducted on May 20. Nearly 365 students from north Karnataka had missed appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on May 5, as the train in which they were travelling reached Bengaluru over seven hours late.
“Happy to announce that Karnataka Students who missed NEET exam due to railway delay will get another chance,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy held a meeting with Chief Secretary T M Vijaya Bhaskar and Higher Education Department officials on the issue. The students missed the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) on Sunday as their train reached Bengaluru an hour after the scheduled reporting time and also due to a change in an exam centre, reportedly without any prior information.
Kumaraswamy had also urged Javadekar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to ensure that the students who missed the test get another chance to write the NEET.
Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda also wrote to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, seeking an early solution to the issue. He said the situation could easily have been averted had the National Testing Authority given wide publicity on the change in exam centre and intimated students well in advance.
“I shall be grateful if you could kindly look into the matter and do the needful to provide one more opportunity to the missing students to write the exam,” Gowda said in his letter.
According to reports, over 500 students from various places in North Karnataka districts failed to make it to the exam venue due to a five-hour delay in Hampi Express while the others missed the opportunity due to a change in an exam centre. One of the candidates tweeted to Javadekar that the train was running behind schedule by seven hours and that they would miss the test for no fault of theirs. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had tweeted on Sunday highlighting the issue. Candidates had staged a protest outside the railway station for missing the test for no fault of theirs