Parliamentary panel to question NTA, ministries on NEET-UG re-exam

A parliamentary panel will brief officials from the Education and Health ministries, the National Testing Agency and the National Medical Commission on the June 21 NEET-UG re-examination, amid concerns over the paper leak case, exam cancellation and student welfare

New Delhi: Top officials of the Health and Education ministries, National Testing Agency and National Medical Commission will brief a parliamentary panel on Wednesday over the conduct of the NEET-UG re-examination on June 21.

The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has summoned the secretaries of Higher Education and Health, besides top officials of the NTA and NMC, to brief the panel on the NEET re-exam.

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This is the third parliamentary panel before whom the top officials of the ministries and NTA (National Testing Agency) and NMC (National Medical Commission) are appearing.

Top officials of the Union Health and Education ministries, as well as of NTA and NMC, have already appeared before the Parliamentary Committees on Education and the Committee on Government Assurances, and told them that their complete focus for now was to hold the June 21 NEET-UG re-test in pen-paper format.

CBI Director Praveen Sood has also appeared before a parliamentary panel about the progress made in the probe into the NEET-UG paper leak case and the steps being taken to arrest all those behind the paper leakage.

The summoning of officials on June 10 comes in the wake of the cancellation of the NEET-UG exam held on May 3 following reports of a paper leak.

Some students have also committed suicide after the exam cancellation, and there are growing concerns among the student community over the re-examination of the NEET exam.

The Parliamentary Committee on Health, which looks into the functioning of the Union Health ministry, will now question the officials on the examination and its conduct.

The panel will hear the views of the Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) and the Secretary, Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education), along with senior officers of NMC and NTA on ‘Conduct of NEET examinations under NMC Act, 2019’.

Their deposition before the panel comes as part of a detailed examination of the subject ‘Organizational Structure, Mandate and Functional Proficiency of Regulatory Institutions pertaining to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’. The Parliamentary Committee on Health will meet on June 10 afternoon in the Parliament House Annexe.

The Parliamentary Committee for Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress member Digvijaya Singh, has already asked the NTA to define what constitutes a “paper leak” in its definition and whether any paper leaks have occurred in exams it conducted since 2018, sources said.

The panel’s questionnaire follows NTA officials’ appearance before it last week, where they contended that there was no paper leak from their system, claiming that some questions from a guess paper were in circulation, sources said.

The Digvijay Singh-led panel is looking into the NEET paper leak issue and the CBSE on-screen marking system (OSM) row, having summoned top government officials, including those from the NTA and CBSE. The committee has sought written answers from the Central Board of Secondary Education and the NTA on the issues of the OSM system and the NEET exam, respectively.

The panel asked the NTA whether it conducted any inquiry into the allegations of irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 paper (outside of the CBI investigations).