Bengaluru Traffic Police said on Tuesday that a ‘fact-check’ into the delay in re-sit of the National Eligibility Test with Entrance Test for Undergraduates (NEET-UG) had found no evidence that traffic associated with a Congress rally prevented a student from reaching the examination center on time, concluding that the candidate left home too late and traveled via a longer route.
The clarification was based on CCTV footage, discussions with the student from RT Nagar and parents, and analysis of the route leading to the examination centre.
According to the police, the candidate left his home at 12.57 pm, while 1.30 pm was the appropriate time to enter the examination centre. The student arrived at the exam center area at 1.33pm, three minutes after the deadline.
In a statement published on X, traffic police said CCTV footage confirmed the student left “just 33 minutes before the deadline” and traveled on a longer route.
The police said: “Traffic conditions were found to be normal, and traffic police personnel facilitated movement wherever required. The delay was primarily due to the delay in departure from the place of residence and choosing the route.”
The ministry added that officers deployed along the route were “seen assisting the candidate’s movement wherever required” and did not find any major congestion associated with the public event.
The incident became the focus of a political dispute after the BJP alleged that a Congress rally in Bengaluru led to severe traffic disruption affecting students traveling to NEET exam centres.
BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “It is very disturbing for the Congress, that political rallies and theater shows are taking precedence over the professional lives of hundreds of thousands of students. They have no real interest in the youth; their only interest is to turn academic issues into a political spectacle.”
State Home Minister Priyank Karg rejected the claim and said that three students had missed the exam for various reasons.
Read also: ‘Inconvenience’ and ‘half-truths’: Tejasvi Surya vs Priyank Karge over Congress rally ‘disrupting’ NEET exam in Bengaluru
According to him, one of the students traveling from Majdi missed a bus and was coming from the opposite direction of the march, another arrived with an old hall ticket, and the third candidate was traveling from RT Nagar.
“RC College has been allocated a total of 720 students as NEET examination centre. Of these, 142 students were absent. Only three students missed the exam due to specific individual circumstances. We have issued comprehensive traffic warnings and set up a dedicated helpline for NEET aspirants,” he said.
“Who forced the students to appear again?” He said, while arguing that attention should instead be directed to the nationwide NEET paper leak.
