Conduct NEET 2021 exam in all 30 districts of state, Odisha govt urges NTA

As per the official notification released earlier by NTA, a total of seven examination centres will be set up in seven urban pockets of Odisha, namely Angul, Balasore, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela and Sambalpur to conduct NEET 2021 exam. Amid COVID-19 situation, it will be highly unsafe for candidates to visit the few examination centres to physically appear for NEET 2021 exam, the letter said. Due to frequent lockdown and shutdown in different parts of the state, transport system also gets disrupted, Mohapatra mentioned in the letter.

"Odisha has got vast tribal pockets having geographically inaccessible areas and far away from the urban centres of the state for which the students of this state may be deprived of appearing the NEET UG as they will have to move long distance for appearing the test," the letter was quoted as saying.

Conducted by NTA, NEET 2021 is a national level exam for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other medical courses in India. NEET 2021 exam is scheduled to be held on August 1, 2021. On March 12, 2021 NTA in an official release announced that NEET 2021 entrance exam will be held in pen and paper mode on August 1, 2021. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on March 15, 2021 confirmed that NEET 2021 exam will be held only once this year. Earlier there were speculations that NEET 2021 could be held twice and Union Ministry of Health had given nod to the proposal as well.

NEET exam 2021 will be conducted in 11 languages this year. NEET 2021 registration process will commence soon on NTA's official website. NTA will release NEET application 2021 and exam schedule anytime soon. Candidates are advised to keep themselves updated about NEET 2021 dates to plan accordingly.