NEET: Students protest in Patna demanding cancellation of exam, burn effigies

PATNA: Amid the ongoing row over irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-Undergraduate) students staged a protest in Patna on Saturday, demanding cancellation of the exam.

A large number of students gathered on the roads and burned effigies and tyres. While the police personnel’s seen using minor force to disperse the crowd.

“NEET (UG)- 2024 is been under continuous controversy since the day it’s been conducted. NTA has announced to reconduct the NEET (UG)- 2024 for 1563 candidates but we demand that why only 1563 candidate’s re-exam will be taken. The National Testing Agency should conduct a re-exam for all 24 lakh candidate in a fresh and fair manner,” said one of the protesting student.

NTA announced that exams for the the NEET (UG)-2024 will be conducted on June 23, 2024 for 1563 candidates who experienced time loss during the originally scheduled examination on May 5.

The May 5 exam, conducted by NTA across 4,750 centres for nearly 24 lakh students, has been put in the docks over allegations relating to paper leaks and questionable grace marks. An unprecedented 67 students have achieved a perfect score of 720, which has added to the concerns.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday demanded a probe into the alleged irregularities in the NEET-Undergraduate exams and said that the entire exam should be cancelled.

Taking to ‘X’, Singh wrote, “My demand is that the entire examination should be cancelled and it should be held as soon as possible and a completely impartial inquiry should be conducted into this matter under the new law passed by the Parliament and the culprits should be given the harshest punishment.”

Earlier, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday launched a fierce attack the central government ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that whether the BJP is in power at Centre or in state, paper leaks are “inevitable”.

“Whether the BJP is in power at the centre or in the state, paper leaks are inevitable. A NEET paper leak is a very serious matter. The accused in custody is admitting that the paper has been leaked. Candidates, parents, students, and youth, all worried. The entire system is suspicious but the NDA government is so immersed in arrogance that it is completely ignoring the credibility of examinations in the country and even after the evidence of the paper leak has been made public, investigations and arrests have been made, and the conspirators have confessed to the crime of #NEET”, Yadav said in a post on ‘X’. (ANI)