NEW DE:HI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya requesting postponement of the NEET-PG examination which is to be held on May 21.

In its letter, the IMA said the NEET-PG 2021 was held 5 months after the scheduled date in September 2021.

Then the counselling scheduled to begin from October 25, 2021 was also initiated (in January, 2022) after a delay due to pending decision on seat reservations and was further delayed owing Supreme Court ruling of March 31, 2022, which ordered the cancellation and conduction of special round of counselling for the Mop-up round.

As a result of the delayed counselling schedule, NEET PG 2022 was deferred from April 2022 to May 2022, so that the candidates could appear for the final stray vacancy round of NEET PG 2021 and can still have plenty of time for preparation and reappearance for the next NEET PG 2022 exam, if they failed to secure a seat this year, the IMA said.

"However, the AIQ Counselling anticipated to be completed by the end of March 2022, is still in process and is uncertain that it will end by May 7th. Several States will also be finishing the counselling around the middle of May 2022. The difference between the NEET PG 2022 exam date and completion of 2021 counselling is too short for an aspirant to prepare and appear for an extremely difficult exam like NEET PG," the IMA said in the letter.

Another "innocent five to ten thousand interns, who served as COVID warriors during COVID-19 pandemic, are ineligible to appear for NEET-PG due to delay in completion of their final examination and consequently their internship beyond eligibility criteria set for the examination", the letter highlighted.

"Since the NEET PG 2022 examination date is 21st May 2022, we request your timely intervention and urgent consideration of postponement of the NEET PG 2022 for a reasonable period of time, so that, the current NEET-PG2021 aspirants have adequate time to prepare and appear for the upcoming NEET-PG 2022 examination and the eligibility of all interns is also ensured," the IMA said.