Bihar boy travels 700 kms to reach NEET exam centre, misses it by 10 minutes

The student travelled for more than 24 hours to reach Kolkata from his native place in order to appear for his National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

NEET aspirant Santosh Kumar Yadav of Bihar's Darbhanga, who travelled more than 700 kms in less than 24 hours by changing two buses, missed the exam by turning up just 10 minutes late.

According to reports, the student travelled for more than 24 hours to reach Kolkata from his native place in order to appear for his National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Unfortunately, he was not allowed to enter the examination centre at a school in Salt Lake.

“I pleaded the authorities but they said I was late. The examination started at 2 pm. I reached the centre around 1.40 pm. The last deadline for entering the centre was 1.30 pm,” Yadav told a local television channel.

“I lost a year,” he added.

The NEET examinees were asked to reach the exam centre three hours before the commencement of the test due to the security and health checks amid the Covid-19 crisis.

But Yadav couldn't reach Kolkata in time as he was traveling all the way from Bihar and had to change two buses to reach the exam centre.

“I boarded a bus at Darbhanga at 8 am on Saturday to reach Muzaffarpur. From there I took a bus to Patna but there was a traffic jam on the route and I got delayed by almost six hours,” Yadav was quoted by Hindustan Times.

“I took another bus from Patna at 9 pm. The bus dropped me near Sealdah station (in Kolkata) at 1.06 pm. A taxi brought me to the examination centre,” he added.

National Testing Agency, NTA conducted the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam, NEET 2020 on Sunday, September 13. Around 85 to 90 percent of students appeared for the examination that was conducted across the country in 3000+ exam centers, revealed Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

As per data, around 15.97 lakh students registered for the exam out of which 15 lakh students appeared for the NEET 2020 examination. The NEET was held on Sunday across the country amid stringent checks and protocols in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.