Chandigarh, May 20 -- The fallout of the NEET-UG paper leak is emptying the streets of Chandigarh's prominent coaching hubs. With the National Testing Agency (NTA) opening an exam city and address correction window that runs until May 21, outstation students who originally relocated to the tricity are packing their bags. Instead of remaining in the city, these medical aspirants are choosing to appear for the June 21 re-exam much closer to their hometowns. City coordinator Virender Singh, principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sector 47, confirmed the trend. He said that the city may see a decline in the number of candidates appearing, though exact figures are not yet available. "The majority of aspirants still belong to the city," he noted, adding that one of the six designated exam centers may shift due to a UPSC exam scheduled on the same day. The exodus is perhaps most visible at the Sector 34 library, where, as per the 2025 data, 11,512 of its 13,257 total members are from other cities, who had come to the city for coaching. Gaurav Jairath of Sri Chaitanya Academy, Sector 34, said "While classes aren't really needed anymore, test series for all students, even the ones not part of our institution, are available for free." For students like Shagun Prabhakar, who is appearing for her fourth attempt at NEET, the decision to return to Shimla was practical. "I will do self-study at home and will appear at my hometown," she said. The stress, however, is palpable among those who are staying back in the city. Aditya Kumar, from Strawberry Fields High School, said starting over has been disorienting. With GMCH in his sights, he said physics and chemistry will have to be constantly practised all over again-and that, he said, is extremely stressful. Opinions remain divided on whether a nationwide re-test was the right call. Khushpreet Kaur, a student at Allen Career Institute, who had also recently cracked JEE Mains, argued the government should have identified and rescreened only the areas where the paper was leaked, rather than putting the entire country through the ordeal again. City NEET trainer Arvind Goyal, however, defended the decision. "You can't be sure how many students actually received it, in the social media era especially, so a re-test for the entire country is the only solution," he said, adding that if students with leaked papers secured government seats, meritorious students would be pushed to private institutions. He did offer a silver lining amidst the fiasco, "many students improve their score in re-tests. Another chance can also be a big advantage." This is not the first time the city has found itself at the centre of NEET turbulence. In 2024, amid allegations of a paper leak, a re-exam centre was set up in the city, though both students assigned to it chose not to appear. The NEET-UG exam is conducted for admissions to premier medical colleges across the country, including Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32....