Many miss Ayush PG entrance test due to mess at exam venues

NAGPUR: The All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET) was conducted across the country on Saturday.
More than 9,000 candidates who aspire to take admissions for PG courses in ayurveda, homoeopathy, unani and siddha courses were to appear but due to an internal issue by the national testing agency (NTA), many missed the exam.
A candidate from Jalna, who is presently working as a medical officer in a local PHC in the district, had got the centre in Surat district of Gujarat.He missed the exam as he was 10 minutes late. “I was working in the vaccination drive section on September 17. I administered more than 65 vaccines yesterday and started for Surat on late Friday night. I reached the centre by 9.45am but the gates were closed at 9.30am. I was not allowed to appear despite many requests,” he said.
Many students decided to skip the examination as their centre was too far. “My preferred centres were Nagpur, Akola and Pune. I was given Ahmedabad. It was not possible for me to travel so I decided to skip the exam,” said Apurva Jaiswal from Nagpur.
Dr Vishnu Bawane, senior functionary of the national integrated medical association (NIMA) said NTA is responsible for the entire mess.
“The NTA issued a notification two days ago and accepted that it’s not possible for them to manage the centres in Maharashtra. This notification is nothing but a safety measure by NTA to avoid legal matters,” said Bawane.
“Many candidates who missed the exam due to this mess have lost their entire year. Many of them are Covid warriors. It’s an insult to Covid warriors,” he added.
AIAPGET exam admit cards were allotted 5 days prior to the exam which is a very careless move by NTA, Bawane said.
“NTA Could have notified the same 15 days in advance so that students would have got ample time to manage their traveling in this critical time of the pandemic,” he added.
According to Bawane, the clarification given in the public notice by NTA appears to be political in nature.
“If the NTA was aware about the clashing of centres then why the same notification not issued on the official website of NTA 15 days in advance? When the other option of rescheduling the exam was available then why was it not adopted in the interest of students?,” Dr Bawane asked.