TRICHY/MADURAI: The Supreme Court stay on the Madras high court’s directive to CBSE to set up additional centres in the state for the sake of Tamil Nadu candidates -- who were allotted centres outside for the national eligibility-cum-entrance test ( NEET ) -- has plunged many aspiring for an MBBS seat into a crisis.

Many such students who should have been worrying more about the examination are now busy trying to figure out the location of the centre in the neighbouring state and reach their destination in time.

The Madras high court order last week to allot NEET centres within the state had come as a ray of hope for these students. Parents say their wards are now all stressed as many of them have to make last-minute arrangements to travel to their destinations by bus or car as trains were full due to the summer holidays.

V Chithra, mother of Mithun from Trichy , had booked train tickets and also a hotel room in Ernakulam where her son was allocated the exam centre. However, she cancelled the room following the high court order believing that they may not have to travel to Kerala . Now that the Supreme Court has stayed the order, all hotel rooms have been found to be booked, she says.

“Even half a mark matters in NEET which may cost my son his medical seat given the high level of competition. We fear that his performance may get affected by travel fatigue and pressure,” he says.

``The CBSE is entirely to blame for this mix-up that has put students under immense pressure when most of them are carrying out last-minute preparations,” says the managing director of Uthavi Education Consultancy, a coaching centre in Madurai. “Students in Tamil Nadu are yet to be fully familiar with NEET as this is only the third year they will be writing the exam. They should have been given some consideration while allocating the examination centres,’’ he sasy.

“We ensured that our son gets the best NEET coaching by spending several thousands and he too has spent several sleepless nights to prepare for NEET. All the hard work put in for the past one year may go waste if anything goes wrong now,” says R Jayanthi, mother of an aspiring doctor in Trichy.

Even applicants from Ramanathapuram have been given a centre in Kochi, which would put them under a lot of pressure as they will have to take several buses, and then find accommodation. One parent pointed out that the centres in Kochi were not within the city limits either and instead in Aluva and Angamali, which were on the outskirts and difficult to locate for a first-timer. Finding accommodation would also be a problem for them here.

Yoha Balaji, a student of Global Public School, said that he applied on February 18, but had been given a centre in Ernakulam in Kerala. However, some of his classmates who applied two days later on February 20 and beyond had been given Yadava Women’s college in Madurai as centre. “I looked for trains today, but found them to be fully booked,” said Ram Sithu, another student who had given his preference of centre as Madurai and Trichy.

Urging the state government to bear the expense of candidates allotted centre outside the state, youth wing president of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Anbumani Ramadoss said that out of the 200-odd such applicants, many were from the government and government aided schools.

“Tamil Nadu is perhaps the only state which has been facing such issues,” claimed Anbumani adding that it could have been easily sorted out had CBSE accommodated 5 or 10 students additionally at every centre in the state. “Some candidates from Tirunelveli and Tuticorin have to travel all the way to Rajasthan to write NEET,” he claimed. TOI couldn’t speak to any such candidate to verify this.

