"Entire examination should be cancelled": Digvijay Singh demands probe into NEET-UG exam

New Delhi [India], June 14 : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Digvijay Singh on Friday demanded a probe into the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-Undergraduate) exams and said that the entire exam should be cancelled.
The May 5 exam, conducted by NTA across 4,750 centres for nearly 24 lakh students, has been put in the docks over allegations relating to paper leaks and questionable grace marks. An unprecedented 67 students have achieved a perfect score of 720, which has added to the concerns.
Taking to 'X', Singh wrote, "My demand is that the entire examination should be cancelled and it should be held as soon as possible and a completely impartial inquiry should be conducted into this matter under the new law passed by the Parliament and the culprits should be given the harshest punishment."
The Congress leader further stated that the "scam" in the NEET-UG is "extremely serious."
"The scam in NEET (UG)-2024 is extremely serious. This is the gigantic national form of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, which not only casts doubt on the functioning of the National Examination Agency (NTA) but also shows it to be faulty and full of corruption. Despite the passing of The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill 2024 in Parliament in February 2024 and the enactment of strict laws in this regard, the nationwide scam by NTA in a major exam like NEET conducted for admission to medical colleges raises questions on the entire credibility of the government and the examination agency," he said.
"Should the government not seriously consider the following points? When the NEET exam was on May 5, 2024, how did its paper get leaked in Patna on May 4 itself and why did the government not take any action after an FIR was registered against the people caught in Patna on May 6?" said the Congress leader.
He further asked, "NTA had fixed the registration date for this exam from February 9, 2024, to March 9, 2024. Then this date was extended to March 16. Then what was the reason that the online registration window was opened again for one day on April 10?"
"On May 6, news was published in a newspaper in Uttar Pradesh that the students had collected money and bought the NEET question paper for Rs 60 crore. Even after this, instead of taking cognizance of these news, how did the NTA issue a press note on May 6, 2024 and term these news as baseless? When the result of this exam comes in June 2024, how did 67 students get full 720 marks out of 720, whereas the number of students who got 720 marks out of 720 was only 2 in the year 2020, 3 in the year 2021, 0 in the year 2022 and only 2 in the year 2023. How did the number of toppers in the All India Rank-1 increase by 5625 per cent compared to last year? Isn't this unexpected?" Digvijay Singh asked.
The Congress leader went on to ask if "injustice" wasn't done to the students who did not go to court.
"1,563 students went to court over the dispute of having two different answers to the questions and were given grace marks. So, was injustice not done to those students who could not go to court? How did 8 students of the same exam centre in Jhajjar, Haryana, score 720 out of 720 marks in this exam? Whereas one of these students failed the 12th grade exam? Why do all these toppers in this centre not have a surname?" Digvijay Singh asked.
Questioning the allotment of grace marks, he added, "If Bihar Police had investigated an examination centre in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, on suspicion of irregularities and NTA had denied a paper leak, then how did 8 students of this examination centre get 720 out of 720 marks? And how did some students of this centre get 716, 718 and 719 marks? Under which formula did the students get 718 and 719 marks? Because according to the established formula, if a student solves a question wrongly, then his 4 marks allotted for that question get reduced, and there is a minus marking of 1 mark, meaning that he can get a maximum of 715 marks for one wrong answer."
The Congress leader also took a swipe at the centre, stating, "Students from Odisha, Karnataka and Jharkhand had chosen the Godhra centre in Gujarat. The paper was leaked on Telegram a day before. Despite evidence of this, why did the NTA deny any wrongdoing? Why did the government not take cognizance of the allegations of students paying a bribe of Rs 20 to 25 lakhs through an international education consultant in Gujarat? Why were Hindi medium students given English medium question papers at an examination centre in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan?"
"The Hon'ble Supreme Court has raised questions on the sanctity of NEET and today ordered the re-examination of 1563 students who got grace marks on June 23, 2024. This will not benefit those students who could not go to court," he added.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the scorecards of 1563 candidates who got "grace marks" in the 2024 National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (undergraduate) exam will be cancelled and the candidates will have a chance to reappear for the exam.
The NTA told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that a committee has been constituted to review the results of over 1,563 candidates who were awarded "grace marks" to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for NEET-UG.
"The Committee has decided to cancel the scorecards of 1563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given grace marks and these students will be given the option to take a re-test," NTA said."
The exam will be conducted on June 23 and the results will be declared before June 30," it added.
The Apex Court reiterated that it will not continue the counselling of NEET-UG, 2024.
"Counselling will go on and we will not stop it. If the exam goes, then everything goes in totality, so there is nothing to fear," said the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will hear the petitions on July 8.
Several petitions were filed in the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5.
The NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA, paves the way for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.