The Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has said on Thursday the irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination were limited to specific regions and that strict action will be taken against those found guilty. He the Ministry is in constant contact with the Bihar Government. He also informed that the Patna Police is investigating and a detailed report will be submitted to the Government.
Over 24 lakh students appeared the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) for the Under-Graduate (UG) Medical courses on 5th May 2024. The results were declared on 4th June 2024.
Addressing a press conference, Pradhan said that the Government is taking the responsibility and asserted that the system has to be rectified.
He further informed that new exam dates will be set and that it will be seen that “students are less burdened”. He also added that “quality and transparency will be there”, assuring the Government is committed to protecting the rights of the students and urged students to have faith in the Government the system.
On the NEET-UG 2024 Examination, the Union Minister said that a high level committee will be constituted to make recommendations to further improve National Testing Agency’s structure, its functioning, examination process, transparency and data security protocols.
“We are committed towards conducting ‘zero error examination’”, Pradhan stated, while also requesting everyone to refrain from spreading any kind of misinformation regarding the sensitive NEET issue.
Read more: NTA to re-conduct NEET-UG 2024 for 1563 students whose grace marks have been withdrawn
On the UGC-NET June Examination, the Union Minister said that a specific question paper was on the Darknet which was flagged by National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). On comparison with the original question paper of the UGC-NET Examination conducted on 18th June 2024, “we came to the conclusion that this is a case of paper leak”, he added.
The UGC-NET which is also conducted by the NTA was cancelled on 19th June 2024, a day after the over 8 lakh students appeared the exam.
Earlier today, at a press conference, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the “BJP ruled states have become the epicentre of paper leaks and laboratories of education mafias.” He accused the Government of playing with the future of the youth by appointing incompetent people to run institutions and ruining the education system.
“If you promote people based on merit and those who know how to run these, there are multiple ways in which you can conduct exams successfully. On the other hand, if you are constantly putting mediocre people, who lack skills, come from your same ideology, and are being posted for the wrong reasons, no system is going to work”, Gandhi maintained.
