Ananya Lohia , New Delhi - A NEET aspirant from Nagpur was left stunned after being allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, UAE, despite selecting Nagpur as his preferred city for the re-examination scheduled on June 21. The error sparked outrage and drew criticism from political leaders before the National Testing Agency (NTA) corrected the mistake.

The student had originally been assigned a centre in Nagpur for the May 3 NEET-UG examination. However, after the exam was cancelled amid allegations of irregularities and paper leaks, he downloaded a fresh admit card for the re-test and found that his examination centre had been shifted to Abu Dhabi Indian School in the UAE. His family said they had never opted for an overseas centre and were shocked by the allotment. The student's father, Mohammad Talib, said it was impossible to send his son abroad at such short notice, especially since the candidate did not even possess a passport.

Following a complaint lodged with the NTA helpline, the agency acknowledged the error and assured the family that the matter would be rectified after verification. The incident triggered sharp criticism from Rahul Gandhi, who questioned how such a mistake could occur and accused the NTA of "testing the patience of the country." Former Maharashtra education minister Anees Ahmed also termed the incident a serious lapse. Later, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh confirmed that the student had been reassigned an examination centre in Nagpur.

While the NTA eventually corrected the error, the incident has raised fresh concerns about administrative lapses in the conduct of national-level examinations, even as authorities claim to have strengthened security and monitoring measures for the NEET re-examination.