NEET-PG 2022: IMA writes to Health Minister, seek postponement of May 21 exam date

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday (May 12, 2022) wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for postponement of NEET PG 2022. IMA in its letter to the health minister urged the ministry to postpone the exam scheduled to be held on May 21. 

In the letter, IMA stated that the small gap between 2021 counselling and exam, ineligibility of 5,000 medical interns to appear in the exam, and delay in counselling.

Indian Medical Association (IMA) wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to "reschedule the NEET PG exam scheduled for 21st May 2022" pic.twitter.com/Y9gFUImrgM

— ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2022

“The difference between NEET PG 2022 exam date and completion of 2021 counseling is too short for an aspirant to prepare and appear for an extremely difficult exam like NEET PG,” IMA said in its letter to the health ministry. 

“Another innocent 5,000-10,000 interns, who served as COVID warriors during COVID-19 pandemic are ineligible to appear for NEET-PG due to delay in completion of their final examination and consequently their internship beyond eligibility criteria set for the examination,” IMA said.

“In this context, it is imperative to note that the time schedule for making of admissions to Postgraduate courses in the given academic year is required to be dispensed inn terms of the time schedule which is prescribed in the governing regulation notified by the then Medica Council of India, which continues to be in terms of provisions explicitly included at Section 61(2) of the National Commission Act, 2019,” the IMA added.

Meanwhile, many students have been seeking the postponement of the examination due to delayed NEET PG 2021 counselling. Several have complained that due to their COVID duties, many of them were unable to complete their internships on time.

Earlier, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) also wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and urged him to postpone the exam. 

“The demand of the postponement of NEET PG Exam is going for long now. NEET PG students are getting mentally traumatised and harassed,” FAIMA President Dr Rohan Krishnan said.

“NEET exam should be held twice in a year. If AIIMS conducts DNB exam twice in a year, so why cannot NEET exam can be conducted twice in a year, so that a bigger pool of doctors can come in the system,” Dr Krishnan said.