Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee demands CBI inquiry into NEET Controversy
Vijayawada: Amidst the NEET exam row, the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) vice president recently urged the Central government to initiate a CBI inquiry into the irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET UG 2024).
According to UNI report, APCC vice president Kolanukonda Shivaji further demanded that the National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General should be sacked immediately. The Congress leader demanded a CBI inquiry into the NEET scam under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
He also demanded that compensation should be paid to the students, who have lost one academic year due to the irregularities.
Also Read:NEET scam is Vyapam 2.0, says Congress amid paper leak allegations
Giving grace marks is not the solution to the problem, he opined. “Colluding with the coaching centres, question papers of NEET were sold," he alleged, besides, he added, "Many irregularities including appearing in the examination by someone else, instead of the student, took place in the NEET examinations."
The future of over 24 lakh students, who appeared in the NEET examination, has become uncertain,” the APCC vice-president regretted, adding that the "Modi led government cannot escape by holding the NTA responsible for the irregularities".
The Congress leader also condemned the statement of Union Education Minister Dhamendra Pradhan a few days back when he gave a clean chit to the NTA stating that irregularities did not take place in the NEET examinations.
However, later the Education Minister had assured that action will be taken against NTA officials if they are found guilty of any irregularities sin NEET.
This year's NEET UG 2024 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.
Also Read: NEET Candidates paid up to Rs 50 lakhs for getting Question Papers in Advance: Bihar EOU
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.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the allegations of NEET paper leak reached the peak when 67 candidates secured All India Rank 1 in the NEET UG 2024 exam. Questions were raised about the candidates scoring 718 or 719 marks out of 720 marks as well (which is 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. NTA has decided 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.
