IMA lauds Govt's move to transfer NEET irregularities case to CBI

New Delhi: The doctors have welcomed the government's move to transfer the investigation into alleged irregularities in NEET 2024 conduct to the CBI. 

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) expressed its gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other key ministers for their prompt response to concerns surrounding the controversies over the exam. The IMA also commended the Centre for its swift response to the NEET-UG exam controversies.

IMA also appreciated the introduction of stringent laws aimed at combating malpractice and irregularities in competitive exams, which include penalties of up to 10 years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore for offenders involved in organized examination crimes.

"We extend our gratitude to the Union Ministry of Education for transferring the investigation of the 'irregularities' in NEET-UG to the CBI for a thorough probe," it said in a statement.

The CBI action came a day after the ministry announced it would hand over the probe into the alleged irregularities to the central agency, a demand raised by a section of protesting students.

The IMA also said it is thankful to the government for removing the National Testing Agency (NTA) director general.

The IMA statement said, "We appreciate the government for enacting stringent laws to address malpractice and irregularities in competitive examinations. In cases of organised crime involving examination authorities, service providers, or other institutions, offenders may face imprisonment of up to 10 years and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore."

The students are the future of India and it is crucial that important competitive examinations are conducted with the utmost diligence and confidentiality, it said.

"We trust that the difficulties endured by NEET-PG students are an inevitable corollary of the welcome reforms of the government and we hope for the robust mechanism as promised by the government," the association said.

The health ministry on Saturday postponed NEET-PG, scheduled to be held on June 23, as a "precautionary measure" in the wake of recent allegations on the integrity of certain competitive exams.

The IMA urged the government to take swift action to ensure that counselling for admission in medical, dental, and other courses begins on time.

The ministry had on Saturday notified the seven-member panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.

On Sunday, the NTA also clarified that its website and all its other web portals are fully secure, and reports that these have been compromised and hacked are wrong and misleading.

"NTA website and all its web portals are fully secure. Any information that they have been compromised and hacked is wrong and misleading," a senior official said.

The NEET-UG was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates appeared. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4.

In an optional retest held for students whose grace marks were scrapped after the matter reached the Supreme Court, only 813 of the 1,563 such candidates appeared on Sunday. These candidates were awarded grace marks by the NTA to make up for the loss of time at six centres due to a delay in the start of the examination on May 5. There were allegations that it led to inflation of marks and contributed to six of the grace mark candidates from the same centre in Haryana scoring a perfect 720 marks along with 61 others.

"At least 52 per cent -- 813 out of 1,563 candidates -- appeared for the retest on Sunday. While no candidate appeared in Chandigarh, the number of candidates appearing from Chattisgarh (291), Gujarat (1), Haryana (287) and Meghalaya (234)," a senior National Testing Agency (NTA) official said.

Over 13 lakh candidates out of around 25 lakh qualified the NEET-UG this year and they will compete for around 1.8 lakh MBBS/dental seats. Amid allegations of irregularities as well as "bunching of high scorers", the NTA stated that the top one lakh candidates are spread across 4,500 centres all over the country. Moreover, nearly two third of these are from rural or semi-rural areas, it stated.

The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.