NEET Re-exam: Tight Security, Wrong Centre Cuts Short a Student's Dream
At 1:32 pm on Sunday, two minutes after the gates of a NEET-UG examination centre had officially closed, a young woman sprinted towards the entrance of a government school in Delhi’s Pandara Road, her admit card clutched tightly in one hand. She had gone to the wrong centre. Breathless and pleading, she explained to security personnel that she had mistakenly reported to a different school in Dwarka with a similar name, before racing across the city. But protocol was unforgiving: the gates had shut at 1:30 pm. She stood outside in tears on a sweltering afternoon, having missed her chance at the re-examination for the national-level undergraduate medical entrance test.
The re-exam was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) after it cancelled the May 3 examination following allegations of a paper leak. Over 23 lakh candidates appeared across 5,440 centres in India and 14 abroad. By the time the examination began at 2:15 pm, candidates had already navigated biometric verification, face authentication, frisking checkpoints, CCTV surveillance and layers of police security. More than seven lakh personnel—from district officials and invigilators to police officers and central security forces—had been mobilised in what the NTA described as a “Team Bharat” effort.
Outside centres in Delhi, the day unfolded under immense stress. At B R Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence in Kalkaji, Pradeep Kumar, a scrap dealer from Burari, waited under a tent erected for parents. “It is her first attempt,” he said of his daughter Aditi. “There are no expectations. Let her understand the exam first.” Nearby, Manoj Sharma, a carpenter from Bihar who works in Rohini, praised the arrangements: “The cooling centres are such a relief. Last time, at the centre in Gurgaon, there was nothing like this.” Schools had arranged shaded waiting areas, drinking water, coolers, tea and first-aid facilities for parents.
At another centre, Harsh, a candidate from Narela appearing for his second attempt, arrived carrying the wrong admit card. Security initially allowed him inside and assured him he could obtain a fresh printout, but invigilators later refused permission and asked him to leave. For candidates who had spent months preparing, such moments were devastating. Inside the centres, candidates encountered heightened security. “Earlier, religious threads on our wrists were allowed,” said 18-year-old Tulsi, a first-time candidate from Dwarka. “This time they made us remove everything. They even asked me to take off my hairband.” Shilpa, a Delhi University student taking the exam for a second time, noted: “They checked my documents twice and frisked me too. The security was tighter this time.”
Complaints about the conduct of the examination were rare, though some frustrations remained. At one centre, Anu, a UPSC aspirant from Aligarh accompanying her sister Shivani, questioned why candidates were made to stand outdoors during verification despite the heat. The NTA said the re-exam was conducted smoothly across the country, with strict adherence to protocols aimed at ensuring fairness.
