Right to conduct examinations for medical college admissions must be reverted back to states: Karti Chidambaram on NEET row

New Delhi [India], June 24 : Congress MP from Sivaganga, Karti P Chidambaram, termed the alleged irregularities in the NEET examination 2024 as a complete mess and demanded that the right to conduct examinations for medical college admissions be reverted back to the states.
Karti Chidambaram said, "NEET issue is a complete mess. The government has completely mishandled the whole thing. The entire agency should be dismantled. The right to conduct examinations for medical college admissions must be reverted back to the states. The centre has no business running an entrance exam for admissions into colleges, which are funded and run by the states. This is anti-federal and now it is corrupt. It has inherent CBSE bias."
JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji held the education department responsible for the irregularities in the NEET and the cancellation of the UGC NET exam.
Mahua Maji said, "The issue of NEET is a crucial issue of the nation. Middle-class people are not able to afford expensive private medical colleges. So, they prepare for the government colleges. Then, there are such big scams in the government exams. They (the central government) have cancelled the UGC NET exam too. The state government is not responsible for it. The central government is responsible for the irregularities. It is a failure of the education department."
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury hit out at the centre and alleged that neither they can provide jobs nor allow the youth to get jobs on their own.
Renuka Chowdhury said, " It is our responsibility to raise the NEET issue. Lakhs of children's hard work and their parents' money were wasted. They can neither move forward nor step back. We were elected to raise people's issues. They (central govt) can't give jobs and now they are not letting them (youth) get jobs either."
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the NEET-UG exams, is facing criticism over alleged irregularities in the exams. This resulted in several protests across the country, with protestors and political parties demanding to disband the NTA.
An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 out of 720, which added to the concerns.
The Ministry of Education said it has constituted a high-level committee of experts to make recommendations on reforms in the mechanism of the examination process, improvements in data security protocols and the functioning of the NTA.
The 7-member committee, led by ISRO former chairman Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, will submit its report to the ministry in the next two months.
"In order to ensure transparent, smooth, and fair conduct of examinations through the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, constituted a High-Level Committee of Experts to make recommendations on reform in the mechanism of examination process improvement in data security protocols and the structure and functioning of the National Testing Agency," the ministry said.