Mumbai: In an attempt to provide another chance, the Supreme Court (SC) has allowed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to be conducted on October 14 for students who could not appear due to Covid-19 infection or because of residing in containment zones.
The results of NEET 2020 for admissions to Undergraduate (UG) medical and pharmacy programmes will be declared on October 16 by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
This year, the NEET exam was conducted on September 13 with standard operating procedures (SOP) against Covid-19 risks. On Monday, the SC said, "Students who could not appear for NEET medical entrance exam last month due to Covid-19 or because they were staying in containment zones can take the exam on October 14."
Students who were unable to appear for NEET on being tested Covid positive or were in containment zone, can send their details such as NEET application number, admit card number and reason for not attending exam via email to dgoffice@nta.ac.in, hrd@gov.in, pstohrm@nic.in and nishankramesh@gmail.com. After verification, students will be able to appear for exam from 2 pm to 5 pm on October 14.
Sudha Shenoy, the representative of the medical parents' association, said, "Parents and students have not received any notification or circular from NTA regarding the SC direction. How will students who miss to check the news know that they have a second chance to appear for the exam in just two days?"
Also, the results of NEET 2020 were supposed to be declared on Monday. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Minister for Education, tweeted on Monday, "@DG_NTA will be declaring the results of #NEETUG 2020 on 16th October 2020. Exact timing of the results will be intimated later. I wish all the best to the candidates."
On September 13, around 15,97,433 students appeared for NEET at 3,842 exam centres in India, out of which around 2,28,914 students appeared at 615 centres in Maharashtra.
The publishers permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)