Candidates, parents seek deferment of NEET examination in violence-hit Manipur

More than 5,000 candidates for the medical entrance examination on May 7 are unable to reach 10 centres in the State capital Imphal.

Representational image only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

GUWAHATI

Medical career aspirants and their parents in violence-hit Manipur have urged the National Testing Agency to defer the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled on May 7. 

More than 5,000 candidates – many of them from the hill districts cut off from the centrally located Imphal Valley – were to have sat for NEET, the only national-level medical entrance examination in India for admission to various undergraduate courses, across 10 centres in Imphal. 

But they are unable to reach these centres due to the volatile situation besides an indefinite curfew across the valley and some surrounding hill districts. 

“It is impossible for our wards to appear for the NEET examination tomorrow (Sunday) in view of the chaos and mayhem all around. We urge the authorities concerned to postpone the exam for candidates in Manipur and hold it when normality returns,” a representative of a group of parents said. 

Manipur plunged into violence, arson and vandalism following a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ on May 3 to protest a move to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the dominant Meitei community concentrated in the Imphal Valley. 

An eviction drive launched by the BJP-led State government in February is also said to have been a factor in the ethnic violence. The drive, ostensibly against poppy cultivation in “occupied” forests, was seen as targeting the Kuki-Zomi tribal people.