Vijayawada: Lokesh urges deferment of NEET PG test

Vijayawada: TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh on Thursday urged the Union minister for health to postpone the NEET PG entrance test till June or July in the larger interests of medical students.

In a letter to the Union minister here, Lokesh said that over 1.7 lakh students would be affected if the test was not postponed. In Telugu states alone, over 20,000 students would get a raw deal. The government should sufficiently address the concerns of medical students writing the NEET PG 2022 exam.

He said that the effect of Covid-19 second wave was two-fold on medical students. While on the one hand, conduct of NEET PG 2021 and subsequent counselling was delayed for over five months, on the other many undergrad students in Telugu states had not completed their mandatory one-year internship, rendering them ineligible for NEET 2022.

Stressing on the need for postponement, Lokesh said over 1.7 lakh students would take this test nationally among whom more than 20,000 were from Telugu states alone. Every student deserved an equal chance. The conduct of NEET PG 2021 underwent multiple delays.

He told the Union minister that stray or mop-up rounds for filling vacancies were ongoing nationally and in several states, including AP and Telangana. It was unfair that with the counselling conducted between January-May 2022, students were barely given time to prepare for the exam, to be held on May 21. It puts them under undue stress, with high uncertainty on their future course of action, whether to go through counselling to find a suitable college, or remain committed to studying for PG NEET.

Lokesh said that the least that could be done now was to extend the exam date, giving them sufficient time to finish their internships and prepare accordingly. They should not be forced to seek legal recourse or be at the mercy of the Union government and instead a fair policy should be adopted, he added.