(Image source from: hindustantimes.com)

A student took almost 24 hours to reach Kolkata from his village in Bihar to appear for the NEET exam but all his efforts went in vain.

NEET aspirant Santosh Kumar Yadav of Bihar’s Darbhanga who traveled more than 700 km in less than 24 hours by traveling in two buses but was late for the exam by just 10 minutes. This made him miss the exam as he was not allowed by the authorities.

The examination center was situated near Salt Lake in Kolkata.

Reportedly, the student had pleaded the authorities but was not allowed to take the exam. The NEET exam commenced at 2 pm while the student reached at around 1 40 pm. The deadline to reach the exam center was 1 30 pm.

Santosh Kumar Yadav spoke to a television channel and expressed his displeasure that he had lost one precious year as he could not give the exam.

According to the NEET exam guidelines, the students must reach the exam center 3 hours prior to the commencement of the exam.

The rule was designed to make sure that the exam center authorities could conduct all the frisking, health checkups amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Santosh Yadav could not reach the exam center in time as he had to change two buses to travel from Bihar to Kolkata. He boarded the bus at 8 am on Saturday to reach Muzaffarpur. From there he took a bus to Patna but there was a traffic jam along the route and the travel got delayed by about 6 hours.

He then took another bus from Patna at 9 pm and the bus dropped him near Sealdah station in Kolkata at 1 06 pm. He then took a taxi to reach the examination center.

National Testing Agency (NTA) had conducted the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam, NEET 2020, on September 13. Around 85 to 90 percent of the students appeared for the examination that was conducted across the country in 3000 plus examination centers across India.

As per the data from the government, 15.97 lakh students across India have registered for the exam out of which 15 lakh students appeared for the NEET exam 2020. The NEET was held on Sunday in India amid strict rules and protocols in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Gayatri Yellayi