Chennai:
Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Union Health Ministry to allot additional centers in Tamil Nadu for the entrance test to admission for postgraduate medical courses in Institutes of National Importance. Palaniswami, referring to the Institutes of National Importance-Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) to be held on November 20, said some students from Tamil Nadu have been allotted examination centers in faraway places, in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor and Nellore districts.
The test is for admission to MD, MS, DM, MCh in Institutes of National Importance for medical education including the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) at New Delhi. All new AIIMS, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) at Puducherry, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research at Chandigarh, and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) at Bengaluru are the other institutions.
The Chief Minister in a letter to Modi said, “I would like to point out that examination centers like Madanapalle in Chittoor District and Nellore are not well connected from various locations in Tamil Nadu, as well as they are 175 to 250 km away from their home towns.” This has caused ‘tremendous’ and ‘avoidable stress’ to the aspiring medical students, Palaniswami said. “Hence, I request you to kindly intervene in the matter and direct the health ministry to allow the examination centers of their choice, by creating additional centers, within Tamil Nadu, if necessary.”
