NEET row: Student bodies stage protest, demand judicial probe

Shimla, June 11

The Himachal Pradesh University unit of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) here today staged a protest against the National Testing Agency (NTA), alleging corruption and mismanagement in the NEET examination.The protesters demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter, besides strict action against those involved in the alleged corruption.

‘MARKS statistically impossible’

In the MBBS-BDS undergraduate entrance examination, where the total marks are 720, each correct answer is awarded four marks, while one mark is deducted from the total for each wrong answer and unanswered questions are left unmarked. In this scenario, scoring marks such as 719 or 718 is statistically not possible. — Sunny Seakta , SFI campus secretary

During the protest, SFI campus secretary Sunny Seakta said following the announcement of the

NEET-UG exam results on June 4, numerous complaints had surfaced, due to which the transparency of NTA’s examination administration had come under suspicion.

“In the MBBS-BDS undergraduate entrance examination, where the total marks are 720, each correct answer is awarded four marks, while one mark is deducted from the total for each wrong answer and unanswered questions are left unmarked. In this scenario, scoring marks such as 719 or 718 is statistically not possible. However, such cases have been observed in several results. The NTA, in a statement, admitted to the negligence, stating that this year’s results included grace marking. However, there was no mention of this grace marking scheme in the guidelines published by NTA before the examination,” he added.

“The manner in which the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the NTA, under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, are privatising medical education poses a grave danger to the future of our country. The argument for ending the corruption was made to change the state-based joint entrance examination system in the medical field, and now allegations of corruption are surfacing regarding NEET-UG,” Seakta said.

The SFI is demanding an immediate, transparent and impartial investigation into the matter, he added.

“We demand the abolition of the NTA and an investigation into all its past scandals,” he said. Meanwhile, the HPU unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also staged a protest against the “irregularities” in the

NEET-UG exam outside the university’s library, demanding a CBI probe into the matter.

During the protest, ABVP campus secretary Avinash Sharma questioned if the NTA was trying to hide something by declaring the NEET-UG results on the same as the Lok Sabha elections results, on June 4.

He said students had doubts about the transparency of the NEET examination.

“Even on the day of NEET-UG examination, irregularities in the system were revealed at different places in the country,” he added.