S Kavi Darshini, an 18-year-old girl who has completed her Class 12 from a government school in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, is full of anxiety these days as she doesn’t know how she will attend the NEET exam on September 13 at the exam centre in Coimbatore, which is over 300 km away from her house.

“Though the restrictions on travelling have been lifted, I don’t know how I would travel from Krishnagiri to Coimbatore to attend the NEET exam. It is the biggest challenge I am facing now,” she says.

As she looks for cheaper options to travel, she fervently hopes, like thousands of other candidates that the exam is postponed or cancelled.

A major row has been brewing between the government and some students and parents — with some political parties supporting them — over the conduct of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which have been scheduled for September 6 and 13 respectively, following much confusion and uncertainty since it was postponed from the initial date on May due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.