Lost faith in NTA, want retest for all candidates, demand NEET aspirants

While many demand thorough inquiry of paper leak, considerable others think re-test option given to 1,563 students is a mere "eyewash"

New Delhi: Many medical aspirants are clamouring for a retest of the NEET-UG 2024 which has been plagued with charges of irregularities, paper leaks and steep rise in merit list, with the Centre’s decision to cancel grace marks for 1,563 students doing little to assuage their concerns.

Student bodies and youth wings of many political parties have been holding protests countrywide to flag their concerns over the alleged irregularities in the prestigious exam that saw 67 students score a perfect 720, unprecedented in the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) history.

---

With reports of paper leak and other discrepancies continuing to pour in, many students say they have lost faith in the conduct of the exam. While many demand a thorough inquiry in the allegations of the paper leak, considerable others think the re-test option given to 1,563 students is a mere “eyewash”.

“The inflation in marks is too much to be offset by a selective retest of 1,563 students. I think revaluation of marks of each student will be a good thing, otherwise a universal retest, but then the government must give us one to two months to prepare,” Aheli Ghosh Hazra, a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirant from West Bengal, said.

On the conduct of NEET this year, she said, “You cannot fix a sick tree by just taking a sick leaf out of it. The whole tree must be uprooted. We have no clue to what extent the rigging took place.” Another aspirant from Madhya Pradesh said things look “fairly unjust” from his point of view. “They just want to get it over with. They also want to hide the paper leak scam,” Animesh, a NEET aspirant from Madhya Pradesh, said.

“Things are not very clear… I think the matter should be probed by a third party which is not biased towards the NTA,” he added. Animesh demanded a retest for all candidates. “Only those with scores above 650 would have an issue with a retest. There must be a retest, but they must give some more time to students. Everyone is out of momentum. Everyone is bogged down by media reports. Logistically, it won’t be feasible for the NTA too to conduct retest in a short time,” he said.

Tejas Gaur of Delhi, who cleared the NEET exam, said he would retake the exam, if it is conducted again. “I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks,” Tejas, who got 4,627th rank, said. The NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.