Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Thousands of postgraduate medical aspirants appearing for the May 2026 Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) have flagged delayed admit card access and allotment of exam centres hundreds of kilometres away, barely a week before the May 16 examination.The AIIMS Delhi-conducted exam released admit cards around 3 pm on May 9, but candidates alleged the website slowed down or crashed soon after, preventing many from downloading hall tickets for nearly 9-10 hours. Several students said they could access the portal only after midnight, triggering a flood of complaints on social media.“You charge ₹4,000 for the application form and the website still crashed for hours,” tweeted Dr Aman Kumar (@manish__aman).According to AIIMS officials, heavy traffic from simultaneous logins temporarily slowed the portal. “If one lakh people access any website at the same time, it can slow down or crash. This happens with many exams, including NEET. The site is now working fine and candidates have been able to download admit cards,” officials said.Candidates also flagged allotment of distant exam centres. Aspirants from large states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan said they were allotted centres 500-800 km away because INI-CET collected only state-wise, not city-wise, preferences during registration.An Agra-based candidate said she was allotted Varanasi, around 650 km away, while a Mumbai aspirant claimed she received Nanded as her centre, increasing travel costs and logistical difficulties. Students said travelling within states like UP and Rajasthan itself can take 12-24 hours, while the seven-day gap between admit card release and the exam leaves little time for confirmed train or flight bookings.“There are hundreds of such cases,” a candidate said, urging AIIMS to review the centre allocation process.On complaints regarding distant centres, AIIMS officials said allotments depend on seat availability and preference patterns, adding that candidates are asked to fill state-wise rather than city-wise preferences to prevent possible malpractice in centre allocation. “The effort is always to allot the closest possible centre, but in large states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, some candidates may still get centres 500-800 km away if nearby seats are already filled,” officials said.Dr Naval K. Vikram, Associate Dean (Examinations) at AIIMS Delhi, said around 95,000 candidates had received either their first or second preferred state and over one lakh candidates are appearing for the exam this year. Nearly 96,000 admit cards had already been downloaded till Sunday, he said.INI-CET is conducted twice a year, in May and November, for admission to postgraduate courses at AIIMS and other Institutes of National Importance across the country.
