New Delhi, On Thursday, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met with some of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirants at his residence, in the middle of the ongoing NEET UG controversy. As per the sources, the students discussed issues related to uncertainty surrounding the exam conducted in May, delays in the counseling process, and the academic calendar.
Despite calls for a retest due to alleged irregularities, the education ministry has stated that the incidents of paper leaks were localised.They emphasised that canceling the examination could jeopardize the careers of lakhs of candidates who have cleared the examination fairly.
The matter has also reached the Supreme Court, which on Thursday adjourned till July 18 the hearing on the clutch of petitions seeking that exam be cancelled and the test be reconducted. The petitioners have probe also sought a probe into the alleged malpractices.
The ministry has informed the Supreme Court that a data analytics of the results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT Madras which found there was neither any indication of “mass malpractice” nor a localised set of candidates benefiting from it and scoring abnormally high marks.
The government’s assertion assumes significance in view of the observations made by the top court on July 8 that it may order a re-test if there were large-scale malpractices in holding the exam. The matter is being investigated by CBI.
Over 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.
The Centre and the NTA, in their earlier affidavits filed in the apex court, had said that scrapping the exam would be “counterproductive” and “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
Despite calls for a retest due to alleged irregularities, the education ministry has stated that the incidents of paper leaks were localised.They emphasised that canceling the examination could jeopardize the careers of lakhs of candidates who have cleared the examination fairly.
The matter has also reached the Supreme Court, which on Thursday adjourned till July 18 the hearing on the clutch of petitions seeking that exam be cancelled and the test be reconducted. The petitioners have probe also sought a probe into the alleged malpractices.
The ministry has informed the Supreme Court that a data analytics of the results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT Madras which found there was neither any indication of “mass malpractice” nor a localised set of candidates benefiting from it and scoring abnormally high marks.
The government’s assertion assumes significance in view of the observations made by the top court on July 8 that it may order a re-test if there were large-scale malpractices in holding the exam. The matter is being investigated by CBI.
Over 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.
The Centre and the NTA, in their earlier affidavits filed in the apex court, had said that scrapping the exam would be “counterproductive” and “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
