In response to questions on the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the conduct of NEET-UG in the Lok Sabha, the Government has said there has been a “likely breach of chain of custody” of the question paper in only one instance and that “there is no material on record to indicate any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in this pan-India examination”. “The Ministry of Education has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the entire gamut of alleged irregularities including conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust etc,” a response submitted by Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar stated. On the number of cases registered on the leakage of the NEET-UG question paper and the action taken by the Government, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said in his response that an FIR was registered only in one case, in Patna, alleging the leak of the question paper and that the ministry lodged a complaint with the CBI, which then registered an FIR in the matter on June 23. On whether the Government has any record of paper leaks in exams conducted by central agencies and details of leaks in the past 10 years, Majumdar has stated that “data regarding examination-specific incidents is not maintained centrally in the Ministry”. “NEET(UG) Examination has been introduced for the standardization of admission to undergraduate medical courses in the country. NEET(UG) seeks to uphold merit and to prevent exploitation, profiteering, and commercialisation of education. Currently, there is no proposal under consideration to scrap NEET(UG) Examination,” Majumdar stated in response to a question on whether counselling was likely to be cancelled and the “old system” from the pre-NEET period would be restored “in view of large-scale protest by the student community”. In response to a question on the work that the NTA outsources to private agencies, Majumdar stated that considering the sensitivity involved in competitive examinations, “various operational and security measures are undertaken for their smooth and fair conduct”. “Such measures involve engagement of specialised/experienced agencies for providing services like capturing of biometric, frisking, CCTV surveillance, AI analytics with a view to identify any potential impersonation, exam delivery etc,” he said. “However, it is pertinent to mention that all core activities involving setting up of question papers are not outsourced.” Since it was formed in 2018, the NTA has conducted over 240 examinations involving more than 5.4 crore students, and the examinations as a whole have been postponed in 15 instances—10 of them due to the Covid pandemic, one of the Government’s responses stated. Exams that were not postponed due to the pandemic were the IGNOU PhD entrance exam in 2022 (due to administrative reasons), the Graduate Aptitude Test-Biotechnology (GAT-B)/Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET) (as per consultation with regional centres for biotechnology), CMAT 2021 (due to the revision of examination pattern by the AICTE), NCET 2024 (due to technical issues) and CSIR NET 2024 (due to logistic issues).
