Almost 400 aspirants from Karnataka missed out on taking the medical entrance exam NEET 2019 scheduled on Sunday, 5 May, as the Hampi express train was delayed by over seven hours, reported The News Minute. Also, the change of exam centres without prior details further prevented several students from appearing for the exam, reported PTI.
Chief Minister of Karnataka HD Kumaraswamy took to Twitter to request Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rail Minister Piyush Goyal and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javdekar to give students one more chance to appear for the exam.
The exam had to to start at 2 pm on 5 May. Students travelling from North Karnataka, especially from places like Hospet, Hubballi and Ballari depended on Hampi Express which was scheduled to arrive at Bengaluru at 7 am. However, the train got delayed by over seven hours and hence reached Bengaluru at 3 pm. Students and their relatives expressed their frustration on Facebook and Twitter.
"For the past one week the Hampi Express is running on a diverted route. There are no timings for the diverted route. Earlier the scheduled time of reaching Bengaluru was 7 am," a railway public relation officer told PTI.
As per PTI, in a statement, the South Western Railway (SWR) said that the Hampi express from Hubballi to Mysuruwas was then being run on a diverted route and not on the original route from Ballari-Guntakal-Dharmavaram-Penukonda- Yelahankadue. This happened because of the ongoing non-interlocked working for doubling between Guntakal-Kalluru. Consequently, the diverted route was more that 120 km longer and also involved an engine reversal at Ballari. The statement further read, "In addition to this, on May 4, departure of this train from Hubballihas to be rescheduled by 120 minutes (2 hours). Reserved passengers of the train yesterday were intimated of diversion+rescheduling by SMS on the mobile numbers given during reservation.”
The SWR further said that it will write to the HRD Ministry to re-conduct the exam for the students who could not appear for the same due to the delayed Hampi Express, ANI reported.
Take Responsibility for Cabinet Ministers’ Incapabilities: Siddaramaiah
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a dig on Narendra Modi and Piyush Goyal regarding the mismanagement during the medical entrance exam. He also asked PM Modi to take the responsibility for the cabinet ministers’ ‘incapabilities’.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also took to Twitter to request for a re-examination.
Furthermore, few examination centres were changed without any prior information, thereby increasing the confusion. "Is it humanly possible to cross the Bengaluru traffic and reach the exam centre 50 km away?" asked parent N Vijay Kumar, reported PTI.
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