New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh criticized the National Testing Agency (NTA) and NCERT for irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-Undergraduate), highlighting concerns regarding fairness and transparency.

In a social media post, Jairam stated, "I was a member of Parliament's Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare between 2014 and 2019 and recall broad support for NEET. But there were MPs, especially from Tamil Nadu, who had raised concerns that NEET would privilege CBSE students and would disadvantage youth coming from non-CBSE schools."

"I do think now that this CBSE issue needs proper analysis. Is NEET discriminatory? Are students from poorer backgrounds being denied opportunities? Other states, like Maharashtra, also expressed grave doubts about NEET. There are also serious questions about the integrity of the National Testing Agency itself and the manner in which NEET is designed and administered. NCERT itself has lost all professionalism in the last decade," Jairam added.

The Congress leader expressed hope that the newly constituted Standing Committees of Parliament would prioritize a comprehensive review of NEET, NTA, and NCERT. "Hopefully, the new Standing Committee(s), when they get constituted, will take up an in-depth review of NEET, NTA and NCERT. This should receive the highest priority," Jairam Ramesh said on social media.

Meanwhile, students across the country staged protests over issues related to the 204 NEET-UG exam. The protests stemmed from concerns over reported paper leaks and the allocation of grace marks during the May 5 exam, which was administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA) across 4,750 examination centres for approximately 24 lakh students.

The NTA informed the Supreme Court that the scorecards of 1563 candidates who received "grace marks" in the NEET-UG exam would be cancelled. These candidates will have an opportunity to reappear for the exam on June 23, and the results will be declared before June 30. "The exam will be conducted on June 23 and the results will be declared before June 30," the NTA stated.

Several petitions were filed in the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5.

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