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Amid the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) paper controversy, various national and state-level exam cancellations and postponements, students held a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday against alleged irregularities in NEET and University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET).
Carrying posters saying "Scrap NTA" and "NTA Must Go," the protesting students demanded action against the National Testing Agency, the exam body that conducted NEET.
The protesters demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the mismanagement of the NEET UG exam and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
However, on July 5, the Centre reiterated its stand on the NEET-UG controversy, informing the Supreme Court that it does not intend to scrap the examination or hold a retest. It emphasised that there were no large-scale irregularities in the exam.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, which will hear petitions on the issue on Monday, the Centre stated that scrapping the 2024 exam in its entirety would "seriously jeopardise" the future of lakhs of honest candidates who appeared for it. It argued that without proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in the examination, taking such a step would not be rational.
Around 24 lakh medical aspirants took the NEET-UG 2024, an ultra-competitive entrance test for undergraduate medical courses, conducted by the NTA on May 5. The results were to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the answer sheets were evaluated earlier.