6.67 lakh to take NEET-1 today

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30

The Central Board of Secondary Education is all set for the first phase of the historic National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) to be conducted tomorrow and has asked aspirants to adhere to a strict dress code to help ensure a fair exam.

NEET-Phase 1, which is a rechristened All India Pre-Medical Entrance Test (AIPMT), will be held tomorrow across India, with exactly 6,67,637 students registered to take it.

Ahead of the exam, top CBSE officials have asked students not to turn up at the centres in full-sleeved shirts and shoes. "Candidates are advised to wear half sleeves not having big buttons or badges or brooches which can be used to hide communication devices. Candidates are advised to wear slippers and sandals and not shoes,” a CBSE instruction said.

Aspirants have also been asked to wear light clothes and avoid metallic and electronic items. No bar has however been placed on wearing customary dresses but those sporting veils, hijabs and turbans need to come to the centre ‘at least by 8.30 am’ to enable frisking, a board advisory insisted.

The Board is keeping its fingers crossed this year and said everything is in place to ensure NEET-1 is fair. Last year, 44 candidates had been barred from taking the retest after Rohtak police found they had benefitted from the leak.

A CBSE official stressed that only those students can sit for NEET Phase 1 tomorrow who have applied for AIPMT and have been issued admit cards. “For those who did not apply for AIPMT, we will conduct an NEET second phase on July 24,” the official said.