New Delhi:The National Testing Agency (NTA) issued an information brochure with incorrect information stating that the SC-ST Caste certificates issued only after April 1, 2022 will be considered for the NEET UG examination. This led to chaos among about four lakh students belonging to the reserved category as most of them had their certificates made long back, making them invalid as per the brochure.
The caste certificates for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe issued by the Government of India need to be made just once in a lifetime for the category students. As most students appearing for the medical entrance examination had their certificates in place, it had become a grave concern for them to get a new certificate made. However, the information in the brochure was deemed incorrect by the NTA, bringing major relief to the worried students.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, an education expert from Kota, Desh Sharma said that NTA has issued an amendment order regarding the SC-ST certificate. He also informed that the cutoff date for SC/ST certificate was also issued by mistake in the information brochure.
The brochure also mentioned that in the event of the non-availability of the SC-ST certificate, the student will have to submit a declaration form stating that the student will produce the certificate issued after April 1, 2022 when necessary. This mistake has also been rectified, and the revised declaration form has been made available to the students. Reserved category students can now complete the online application process with the help of the amendment declaration form.
The online applications for NEET UG 2023 started on March 6. The NTA has so far received about 5 lakh 50 thousand applications online for the examination. Last year, 2.68 lakh SC students and 1.13 lakh ST students had applied for NEET UG.
