The doctors' association-United Doctors Front Association(UDFA) on Sunday questioned National Testing Agency’s (NTA’s) decision to grant grace marks to medical aspirants who participated in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination 2024 examination marred by alleged irregularities.
National President of the United Doctors Front Association Lakshya Mittal said, “There is anger among people. NTA held a press conference yesterday and said a high-power committee has been formed and decisions will be taken accordingly."
He added, "They said that 1,600 students who have filed the PIL said that they (students) faced time-bound issues because of which NTA applied the normalisation formula of grace marks, which was applied in 2018 for the CLAT online exam. NTA applied the same formula in the NEET UG exam which is an offline exam.”
A huge political row has erupted following the announcement of this year’s NEET examination results on June 4, as the results drew the attention of several students who raised concerns over irregularities in the awarding of marks.
The students have alleged that the inflation of marks resulted in an unprecedented 67 candidates achieving a perfect score of 720/720 and securing the top rank. Six of these toppers are from the same exam centre in Haryana.
NTA has rejected allegations:
NTA has denied any irregularities, citing changes in the NCERT textbooks, an easier exam, a surge in registrations, a question with two correct answers, and grace marks due to “losing time at the examination centres” as some reasons for the students' higher marks.
NEET exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres across 571 cities. Over 20.38 lakh students registered for the exam, with 11.45 lakh candidates qualifying. Over 80,000 MBBS seats are available in over 540 medical colleges in the country.
