NEET: 15,000 medical aspirants in fix as Central list of OBC candidates differs from state's list

Around 15,000 medical aspirants who are willing to appear in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year are in a fix after the information bulletin of NEET says that candidates not coming under the Central list for OBC/SC/ST have to mention their category as 'unreserved'.

The confusion has arisen among the candidates as the Central list is not matching the OBC list of Bengal. Many of the OBC students are anxious over their fate following the publication of the information bulletin.

The qualifying marks for unreserved category in NEET is fixed at 50 percentile and to appear in NEET, the unreserved candidates are required to get 50 per cent in an aggregate in Biology, Physics and Chemistry in 10+2 level examination.

But the OBC category students can qualify after getting an overall 40 percentile and 40 per cent in Biology, Physics and Chemistry to appear for NEET. Due to mismatch with the Central OBC list and upgradation of eligibility and qualifying marks, many OBC category students of Bengal will be unable to fill the application form or they may not qualify the NEET in their

respective category. The filling up of application forms has already been started.

In 2017 NEET Information Bulletin, it is clearly mentioned that the CBSE Board, that conducts the NEET will not take any responsibility for any mistakes in regional language question paper and students have to do respective corrections in the examination hall seeing the English version question. The experts feel that this will be a problem for the regional language students in the examination hall.

In NEET exam, a candidate has to answer 180 questions in 180 minutes which means a student gets only 1 minute to answer each question. The students opting for regional languages will face problems if they have to follow question papers in the English language.

In the published Information Bulletin for NEET 2017, it is mentioned that the restriction regarding age and number of attempts are imposed by CBSE as per instruction of Central government.

But the actual order issued by Dr Amit Biswas, the under secretary to the Govt of India to Dr S Bhardwaj, the Joint Secretary says that there will be no upper age limit for the candidates appearing the NEET. The NEET rule regarding Physically Handicapped (PH) quota differs from the State rule.