The Education Ministry on Saturday set up a 4-member panel to re-examine results of over 1,500 students who were awarded grace marks in the NEET UG 2024 exams, said National Testing Agency DG Subodh Singh.
Singh however said that compensation with grace marks in NEET-UG has not affected any qualifying criteria, adding that the panel set up to review the same will submit its report within one week.
NTA's DG also said that the result of NEET candidates, who were awarded grace marks, might be revised. He further assured that this review will not impact the admission process.
However, NTA denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
This comes two days a controversy erupted over 67 students scoring a perfect 720 score and of those six were found to be of the same exam centre in Haryana's Faridabad.
Medical aspirants, parents and even the Congress party had alleged paper leak concerns over such scores.
NTA announced the NEET UG 2024 results on Tuesday, June 4, when the Lok Sabha elections were also being announced.
A senior NTA official had said, "Sixty-seven candidates scored the same 99.997129 percentile score, therefore, they shared the all India rank one. The merit list will be prepared using a tie-breaking formula with those getting higher marks or percentile score in Biology will be given preference followed by Chemistry and Physics."
Parents also wrote letter to the national testing agency, seeking an extensive probe into the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG results before the counselling process begins.
Meanwhile, the Congress had hit out at the Modi government, saying that the future of lakhs of youth of the nation is "getting ruined", first due to paper leaks and now due to error in result.
"It is clear that this government cannot get any paper done without leaking it," the grand old party said, adding that "Sir claims to stop wars in foreign countries but he is unable to even stop paper leaks in the country."
NTA on the other hand, released a statement that due to loss of examination time, "such candidates were compensated with grace marks. So, candidates' marks can be 718 or 719 also".
KERALA CONGRESS SEEKS PROBE
The Congress' Kerala unit on Saturday demanded a comprehensive probe into the allegations of irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 results.
The grand old party said that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) results have raised concerns about the authenticity of the national level exams for the medical courses.
Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, wrote a letter to the Centre and said many students from the state, personally expressed concern over the NEET results.
"I write to demand a comprehensive investigation into the suspicious results of the recently published NEET results for 2024," the Congress leader said in the letter sent to the secretaries of the departments of the Higher Education and Health and Family Welfare of the union government.
Satheesan said that it was "extremely alarming" to see 67 students receiving full marks, with eight of them coming from the same exam centre, he alleged.
Ineligible candidates would degrade the quality of our healthcare system in the long run, which is deemed to be a great injustice to the generations to come, the Congress leader added.
MAHARASHTRA GOVT SEEKS NEET RESULTS CANCELLATION
The Maharashtra government on Saturday sought the immediate cancellation of last month's NEET exam, alleging that the results have brought injustice to the medical aspirants from the state.
State Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif on Friday had said, The NEET exams were probably conducted after taking money. The results are such that no student of Maharashtra will get admission for the MBBS course in government or private college in the state."
Several parents had approached him, asking to address the issue, he said. "This (the results) has caused injustice to Maharashtra and it must be immediately cancelled. We are going to tell NMC (National Medical Council) about it," he added.
Mushrif said the government was even contemplating approaching the court over the issue.
AKHILESH YADAV DEMANDS SC-MONITORED PROBE
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday alleged irregularities in the NEET 2024 exams, asking the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of this case and conduct a thorough probe in the matter.
"Under the BJP rule, exams are turning into a business of illegally leaking question papers, getting papers written by fake people, setting up centres and managing results. It cannot be a coincidence that similar scams are taking place in most of the exams," Yadav said in Hindi in a post on X.
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"The honourable court should take suo motu cognizance of this matter, conduct a thorough investigation, give severe punishment to those guilty, and eliminate any possibility of such recurrence in future," he added.
AAP DEMANDS SC-MONITORED SIT PROBE
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also on Saturday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the alleged irregularitis in the NEET UG 2024 exam and results.
AAP leader Jasmine Shah slammed the BJP, saying most of the allegations that point to a "big scam" in the exam have come from states ruled by the saffron party.
"We demand a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into all the irregularities so that the truth comes out," he said.
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Shah said that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party stands firmly with the country's youth in this regard as it concerns the future of lakhs of students.
(With agency inputs)
