New Delhi: The CBI on Sunday took over the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG following a reference from the Union
The CBI on Sunday took over the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG following a reference from the Union education ministry, while the National Testing Agency cracked the whip against more students as it debarred 17 from centres in Bihar after detection of “malpractices”.
With a section demanding the cancellation of the May 5 exam, the ministry officials reiterated the government’s earlier stand that the incidents of malpractices were “localised” or “isolated” and it was not fair to jeopardise the careers of lakhs of candidates who cleared the exam rightfully.
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 Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) handed over a report to the Education Ministry on Saturday following which the probe was handed over to CBI for comprehensive investigation.
