NEET 2024 exams row: Protest staged near WB Education Dept's headquarters, TMC demands SC-monitored probe

Kolkata: Raising voices against the alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate- NEET 2024 exam results, members of the All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) held a protest against the National Testing Agency (NTA), the agency in charge of conducting the MBBS entrance test near the West Bengal Education Department's headquarters in Salt Lake recently.

Condemning the NTA's decision to conduct a re-examination of the 1563 candidates who got grace marks in the exam, the protesters held up placards in their hands. They voiced their frustration, claiming that the delay in starting admissions at state-run colleges is putting many medical aspirants' futures at risk.

Speaking to PTI, One of the protesters claimed that the future of many aspiring doctors has been jeopardised because of the row over NEET-UG. Also, frustration among students is rising as even a month after the higher secondary results were announced, the admissions in state-run colleges did not begin, while private colleges have already begun the process, he said.

Also read- NEET 2024 Paper Leak Investigation: 11 Candidates Issued Notices By EOU In Bihar

However, the demonstrators' march towards Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake was halted by the police, who initially attempted to calm them down and clear the area. Still, when the protestors persisted, the police allegedly detained some of them and escorted them away in vehicles.

Expressing solidarity with the students over the issue of NEET-UG, the TMC demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe.

TMC spokesperson Santanu Sen who is also a doctor alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre was playing with the future of students.

"This is one of the biggest scams of the BJP-led central government. The BJP is playing with the future of lakhs of students. We demand a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into this entire NEET-UG scandal, which has affected around 24 lakh students," said Sen.

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

WB Education Minister Demands CBI probe

Medical Dialogues team today reported that West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu recently demanded an investigation into the alleged irregularities in NEET 2024 by central agencies. The state education minister asserted that there had not been such cases when the medical entrance test was in the domain of the state under the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination board.

Speaking to PTI, Basu said that the Centre never wastes time in expediting a probe into alleged irregularities in teachers' recruitment tests in West Bengal.

"But it is silent on probing into the irregularities in NEET-UG, which affected the future careers of lakhs of aspiring doctors across the country. I fail to comprehend why no ED or CBI probe has been initiated so far into the NEET-UG irregularities. Isn't it the Centre's failure?" he said. 

The NEET conducting agency NTA said in a statement earlier that many candidates received grace marks due to timing issues, which accounted for the unusually high scores. The agency also attributed higher cut-off marks to an increased number of test-takers, dismissing all allegations of foul play.

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.