Costly MBBS education led to NEET controversy, says Baba Ramdev, discloses Patanjali intends to create educational university, medical college

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing controversy of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate- NEET 2024 exam results, Yog Guru Baba Ramdev, founder of Patanjali has declared plans to establish a medical college in India. In a recent interview with Business Today, Ramdev shared Patanjali's upcoming plans for medical education. He disclosed that within the next 1-2 years, Patanjali aims to establish the world's largest MBBS college and the biggest educational university.

Explaining what led to the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, Ramdev pointed out in the interview, the significant gap between the fees for studying at government or private medical institutions and the limited availability of seats in government-based medical institutions.

Also read- NTA Won't Be Spared If Found Guilty Of NEET Irregularities: Union Education Minister Pradhan

Speaking to Business Today, he said "The cost of studying in govt institutions is very low. The education is of good quality and of relevance in these government institutes at much lesser fees. However, studying in private medical institutions can be very costly. The fees range somewhere between Rs 25 lakhs and goes up to Rs 2 crores, and this is only for MBBS. If one wants to study further, go for MD or surgery courses, the education cost can go up to Rs 4 crores."

Following this, he declared his plans to establish a medical college for medical aspirants in India which is not yet confirmed. 

According to the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are only 55,880 MBBS seats available in 386 government medical colleges, leaving almost 42 students competing for every seat. 

NEET-UG is the qualifying entrance exam for admission to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery, and Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery and BSc Nursing courses. There are more than 80,000 MBBS seats in over 540 medical colleges in the country.

NTA conducted the (NEET-UG) for more than 24 lakh candidates at 4750 different Centres located in 571 Cities throughout the country including 14 Cities outside India on 05 May 2024 (Sunday) from 02:00 P.M. to 05:20 P.M.(IST).

NEET Controversy:

This year's NEET UG 2024 exam was mired in controversies after a paper leak scam was revealed in Bihar. 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.

Several pleas were filed in this connection against NTA alleging discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 exam.

This year's NEET UG 2024 shocked many as 67 candidates secured AIR 1, multiple candidates from a single centre secured full marks and some also secured 718 or 719 marks out of 720 marks, which seems impossible considering the NEET marking scheme.

When NTA tried to defend the results saying that several candidates were issued grace marks to compensate for the loss of time during the exam, further questions were raised. Pleas were also filed against NTA before the Supreme Court challenging the policy of granting grace marks.

Amid the uproar, the Union Government's counsel recently informed the Supreme Court that the committee set up in this regard recommended withdrawing the grace marks of 1563 candidates and informing them of their original scores, obtained without the grace marks.

It has been proposed that these 1563 candidates would be given a choice of retaining their original scores (without grace marks) or appear in a retest, which will be held on 23rd June. The results of the retest will be published before 30th June, 2024 so that the NEET UG 2024 counselling could start from 6th July, 2024.

Also read- NEET 2024 Controversy: WB Education Minister Demands Central Probe Into Alleged Irregularities