The move comes after a 46-year-old man died while taking his son to take his exams
The National Human Rights Commission on Monday issued notices to the Central Board of Secondary Education and Tamil Nadu government for causing hardships to the students who had to travel out of their states to write the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Taking “suo motu” cognizance of media reports alleging hardships faced by NEET students, the NHRC, in a press release, has sought a detailed report from the CBSE’s chairperson and Tamil Nadu chief secretary explaining as to why the students had to travel across the State to appear in the examination. It would also like to know as to what steps are being taken by both the authorities to ensure that such incidents do not recur in future.
Reacting to the NHRC notice, senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar blamed the CBSE for the hardship caused to the students. “It is the responsibility of the CBSE to hold the exams without any confusion. The CBSE did not seek help for setting up of more examination centre,” he told reporters.
Citing the incident of a 46-year-old man from Tamil Nadu, who had to travel a long distance of 500 Km with his son to appear in NEET at a centre in Kerala, died due to cardiac arrest on Sunday, the commission has observed that the contents of media report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights.
“The students pass through tremendous pressure due to examination; it is the duty of the State to ensure that they should not be subjected to any kind of discomfort, while they are appearing for the entrance examinations. It appears that the State Government and the CBSE authorities have failed to provide examination centres to the aspirants within the State, resulting in hardships not only to the students but also their parents,” it said.
The NHRC said that according to a news report it quotes, "a statement issued by the CBSE says that at least 3,685 medical aspirants from Tamil Nadu had to travel out of state to take the exam. "However, as per (the) news report, the CBSE and the NEET authorities have not commented (on) why they failed to create enough exam centres within Tamil Nadu." Following outrage over the Tamil Nadu students being allotted examination centres in Kerala, Rajasthan and elsewhere, the state government announced that every student from Tamil Nadu who travelled to outside state to appear for the NEET would be given train fair in addition to the monetary assistance of Rs 1,000 per candidate.
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