Bhubaneswar: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has come out with a dress code for students taking the upcoming National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet).

The decision has received mixed reactions from people of the medical fraternity.

According to the dress code, the candidates will have to wear "light clothes with half sleeves, without big buttons, brooch/badge, flower etc. with salwarrouser". They can wear "slippers, sandals with low heels and not shoes" to the exam centre. The Neet will be conducted on May 6, from 10am to 1pm.

"Instead of creating all these hassles, it would have been better if they had installed an electronic scanner. Students are stressed during such situations and such decisions create more stress," said Alok Mohanty, a medical aspirant. Last year, the CBSE had to face flak when students were asked to remove their headscarves to seek entry into the exam halls.

However, many feel these dress restrictions are fair. "A number of professional IT certification course have similar restrictions such as no watches, no mobiles or shoes. So there is no harm in Neet following suit.

"The examiners cannot be expected to know how these devices can be misused and it is better to ban them," said Anshita Musadi, a dentist.

"We don't have exam centres in my city and so, I need to travel some distance to the examination centre. We need to carry money and mobile phones. So they should at least allow us to carry these items," said Sonali Behera, a practising doctor.

The exam will be conducted in Hindi, English, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.