Amid a raging political row over a massive Karnataka Congress rally in Bengaluru that caused students to miss the NEET-UG re-examination on Sunday, the city traffic police fact-checked the claims and revealed that candidates leaving for exam centers later and taking longer routes were the actual reasons why some missed the re-examination.
Bengaluru Traffic Police on Tuesday said it had analyzed CCTV footage and investigated the routes taken by NEET students to determine why some candidates reached their examination centers after the entry deadline.
Justifying its action, the city police said that traffic conditions in Bengaluru were normal on the day of the retest, adding that traffic personnel facilitated movement wherever required.
Read also | ‘Inconvenience’ and ‘half-truths’: Tejasvi Surya vs Priyank Karge over Congress rally ‘disrupting’ NEET exam in Bengaluru
“The delay is primarily due to the delay in departure from the place of residence and choosing the route,” she added.
Timetable found by Bengaluru traffic cops
The Bengaluru Traffic Police shared a detailed timeline drawn up by analyzing CCTV footage. According to their findings:
12:57 PM: One of the candidates left his residence in RT Nagar
1:30 PM: The deadline for entering the examination center
1:33 pm: The candidate arrived at the examination center after the scheduled time
The police also found that:
1. Candidates left late for the examination centre, and in this case, it was only 33 minutes before the deadline.
2. Analysis of the route chosen by the candidate showed that they traveled a longer route, although a shorter route was available, enabling them to reach the center more quickly.
3. Traffic conditions that day were “generally normal,” with “no significant congestion” due to the public event.
4. Traffic police personnel deployed on the road were seen “facilitating the candidate’s movement wherever required.”
Bengaluru Traffic Police has come to the conclusion that traffic congestion was not the reason behind late students arriving at exam centers to retake the NEET exam.
BJP v Congress over mega rally ‘disruption’
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya and Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge sparred over the ruling Congress’ huge rally in the city on the NEET re-examination day.
Suriya claimed that the gathering caused students to miss exams because they arrived late due to “massive traffic disruption.”
“The Congress party could have chosen any other day for its rally at Palace Grounds. Instead, it chose the same day when thousands of students appear for NEET. With massive traffic gridlock in Bengaluru, many students were late, and some of them reached the exam centers in panic and had to beg the authorities to let them enter,” Suriya said in a post on X.
He added that, fortunately, some examination authorities accommodated the students and gave them compensatory time.
Read also | ‘Ask PM to detain Pariksha Pe Charcha: Kharge disputes Suriya’s claim that students missed NEET retake ‘due to Cong event’
The BJP leader further alleged that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was shedding “crocodile tears” over students and exams, adding that if his concerns were real, the party would have avoided the huge rally on the day of the NEET exam.
Congress leader and state Home Minister Priyank Karg responded to Suriya without mentioning his name and called him a “serial misinformation MP”.
Kharge said Syria’s claims were “half-truths” and “contrived anger.”
Besides the candidate from RT Nagar, Kharge said that out of 720 students allocated RC College as NEET examination centre, 142 students were absent and three others missed the exam.
In a post on the website He said another candidate had arrived at the exam with an old hall ticket – from the first exam held on May 3 – and was therefore not allowed to write the exam.
According to the Home Minister, only one candidate from RT Nagar missed the exam.
