Candidates have been advised to come to the exam centres with masks and sanitisers. However, they will be provided three-ply masks once they enter the centre. The candidates will have to use the masks provided by the examination authority in order to avoid any form of unfair means at the time of examination. Students in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will be provided the means of transportation by the government. In Kolkata and Mumbai, the Metro Railways and local trains will run special services for NEET candidates. A group of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni and students have launched a portal to provide transport facilities to exam centres for the candidates in need.
The NTA NEET 2020 exam is being held after the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the exam amid a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. Refusing to postpone the exam, the court said a “precious year” of students cannot be wasted and life has to go on.
Several opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, DMK president MK Stalin and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had also demanded that the NEET and JEE be postponed.
The exam has also been contentious, with cases of student suicides on a rise. A Madurai-based MBBS aspirant Jyothy Sridurga ended her life on Saturday, becoming the second student from Tamil Nadu within a week to die by suicide out of fear and anxiety.
NEET had turned into a festering social issue in Tamil Nadu on the back of another suicide three years ago. A student with a solid performance in her 12th class, Anitha was unable to crack the exam and had moved the Supreme Court challenging it. Her death had sent shockwaves across the state and firmly established an anti-NEET sentiment in Tamil Nadu.
