New Delhi, June 20 (UNI

The National Testing Agency (NTA) today said that a NEET-UG candidate's examination centre preference had been changed to Abu Dhabi by the candidate himself through the agency's centre-modification portal.

In a post on X, the agency said that records showed the candidate's examination city preference was changed three times to Abu Dhabi using the candidate's login credentials. It maintained that the choice of Abu Dhabi as the examination centre was previewed twice before submission.

According to NTA officials, the candidate logged in on May 21 and selected Abu Dhabi as the first-choice examination city and Dubai as the second.

The clarification came after the father of a NEET aspirant alleged that his son had originally opted for Nagpur, Wardha and Bhandara as preferred examination centres.

The issue surfaced today after the student's father spoke to the media, claiming that the family was shocked to find an overseas examination centre listed on the admit card.

"Once the admit card was downloaded at 4 pm on Friday, we were really shocked to see an overseas allotment of centre, even when our son had selected no such options," said Mohammad Talib, the student's father.

"We are completely unable to send our child abroad for the exam. He does not even have a passport, and there is no time left to make travel arrangements," he added.

Rejecting allegations of an error at its end, the NTA said that although it received an informal request to shift the centre to Nagpur less than 48 hours before the examination, it decided to accommodate the request in the interest of the student.

Responding to media reports, the agency posted on X: "The grievance is being addressed, and the candidate will be allocated a centre in Nagpur, after due verification, in the next few hours."

The controversy also drew a reaction from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who questioned the examination authority's functioning.

"How did this even happen? Yesterday, no student should have had any complaint about not being able to reach their centre. The NTA is actually just testing the patience of the country's children and their parents," Gandhi said in a post on X.

"A system that can't provide a centre in a child's own city but can send them abroad instead—it has no right to conduct exams," he added.

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