Thousands of medical aspirants across Odisha appeared for the NEET-UG re-examination on Sunday under stringent security arrangements, according to officials.
The re-examination was organized at more than 130 designated examination centres spread across the state.
To ensure the testing process was conducted smoothly and without disruption, police personnel were heavily deployed outside all examination venues, officials noted.
The re-examination became necessary after the original exam, which took place in May, was cancelled by authorities following widespread allegations of a question paper leak.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the re-test across 551 cities and 14 overseas locations, offering the exam in English alongside 12 regional Indian languages.
To maintain strict compliance and integrity, the NTA ensured that more than 95,000 examination rooms were fully equipped with live CCTV surveillance.
The examination commenced at 2 PM and concluded at 5:15 PM, notably including an additional 15-minute window for candidates this time around.
To assist students in reaching their venues on time and without hassle, the state government put elaborate transportation arrangements in place.
In a post shared on X prior to the commencement of the exam, Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena announced that free bus services had been provided from every corner of the state directly to the respective examination hubs.
The facility was extended to parents and guardians accompanying the candidates, Jena said.
Furthermore, the free transport services remained available after the test concluded to help candidates safely return back to their homes, the minister added.
“Our government is always committed to the bright future of the students and their convenience,” he added.
In a move to facilitate unhindered travel, candidates and their accompanying parents were exempted from routine road safety checks and other traffic enforcement activities for the day, according to Akash Rana, the Inspector In-Charge of the Traffic Police Station in Bhubaneswar.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG), which serves as the uniform gateway for admission to undergraduate medical programs across all medical institutions, was initially conducted on May 3.
However, just days after its conclusion, the NTA chose to cancel the entire exercise in the wake of the continuous paper leak controversy.
