Doctors despair over specialist dreams as NEET PG gets put off at 11th hour

BENGALURU: Several graduate doctors descended on National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) Postgraduate 2024 centres in the city and elsewhere early Sunday as they weren't convinced by the previous night's news that the exam had been called off. After all, they had prepared for months for what was a crucial stage in their career growth, and the precautionary grounds cited for putting off the exam sounded too facile to be true.
The doctors had to return from the exam centres. NEET PG 2024 had been postponed once already and given the state of affairs at the National Testing Agency (NTA), they were on edge.
Dr Awanna MB, a Benglaurean, had accompanied his relative to Mysuru, where the latter's NEET PG centre was. "It came as a shock to us. There were rumours at night that the paper had been leaked. By 10pm, confirmation of the postponement came in by the ministry. My relative has spent a year preparing for the exam. It has been a stressful year for medical students. We don't know when the exam will be held next," said Dr Awanna as he travelled back to Bengaluru.
Dr Pruthvi Bachimatti from Kalaburagi was in Bengaluru preparing to write his exam here. He had rented out a space with two others in the city for a year during coaching and to use his college library facility. "After MBBS internship, I focused on coaching for NEET PG and spent around Rs 1 lakh on classes. I was to write the exam in March, but it was postponed in Jan. So, there was still some time to process it. But this time, it was completely unprecedented. My roommates told me the exam was called off at about 10.30pm, and we frantically looked it up online. A post on X.com confirmed it. I still couldn't believe it and went to the exam centre at Cambridge institute in KR Pura in the morning (on Sunday), but it was empty," he said.
Another doctor recounted how his peers "had paid up Rs 5 lakh as guarantee, against completing the ESI bond after postgraduation, keeping in mind that the exams were to be held in March 2024". "However, the exam got postponed and they had to not just park that money aside, but also spend on rent and coaching for about a year, forgoing any source of income. Now, when the exams got postponed again today, it was really stressful, considering we all come from middle class," he said.
"The sudden and unprecedented announcement by the Union govt to postpone NEET PG has left approximately 2.5 lakh candidates, who were diligently preparing for this highly competitive exam, in a state of immense pressure and anxiety," said Ajay Kamath, state secretary of All India Democratic Students' Organisation-Karnataka.
(Inputs from Sankalp S Patil)