48 percent of 1563 candidates skip NEET retest

New Delhi: 48 percent of the 1563 candidates i.e 750 skipped the re-neet exam held yesterday. According to the National Testing Agency (NTA), a total of 813 out of 1563 candidates appeared for the NEET UG retest on Sunday.

The retest was conducted for the affected candidates who had experienced time loss during the originally scheduled examination on May 5.

"Only 52 per cent of a total of 1563 candidates gave retest on June 23. Attendance 813 total. On two Jajjar centres, attendance was 58.09 per cent. Out of 494, 287 gave the retest," NTA informed ANI.

The re-conduct of the exam was announced following allegations of irregularities in NEET-UG, including paper leaks.

Amid allegations of irregularities in the conduct of entrance examinations, the National Testing Agency (NTA) claimed on Sunday that its website and all its web portals are fully secure. The NTA further dismissed the allegations of the portals being compromised, calling them "wrong and misleading."

"NTA website and all its web portals are fully secure. Any information that has been compromised and hacked is wrong and misleading," the NTA said in a post on X.

The NTA is facing criticism over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance-Test (NEET) (UG) Examination 2024. This has led to an uproar across the country, with the opposition demanding to scrap the testing agency. An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 marks out of 720, which added to the concerns.

Amid the NEET irregularities allegations, the Centre postponed the NEET-PG exam a day ahead of its postponed date and cancelled the UGC-NET exam conducted on June 18.

This year's National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 Examination was mired in controversies after the allegations of paper leak came into light. Around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.

Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.

Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest.

Meanwhile, NEET aspirants across the country have been protesting against the alleged paper leak issue in NEET UG 2024 and the National Testing Agency's policy of awarding grace marks to 1563 candidates. While finally the NTA decided to scrap the grace marks, the issue of alleged paper leak is still unsolved.

Although earlier, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had denied such allegations of paper leak, recently he assured action against NTA officials if they were found guilty of the "irregularities" in the conduct of the MBBS entrance exam.

The NEET 2024 issue has now taken a political turn as opposition parties are accusing the government over the allegations of rigging, paper leaks, and corruption. Recently Congress leader Rahul Gandhi argued that the BJP-ruled states were the "epicentre of paper leak".

While hearing pleas concerning the NEET examination, the apex court had on June 18 said that even if there was "0.001 per cent negligence" on the part of anyone in the conduct of the examination, it should be thoroughly dealt with.

The Apex Court had also sought responses from the Centre and the NTA on a plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the exam.

Also read- NEET 2024 Paper Was Leaked! 4 Accused Confess To Bihar Police