Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, today, Thursday, July 11, met some National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) aspirants at his residence, amid the ongoing row over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the medical entrance exam this year.
As per a report by PTI, the students raised issues like the uncertainty prevailing over the fate of the exam which was conducted in May, the delay in the counselling process and ultimately the academic calendar.
While the matter is currently sub-judice, with the next hearing scheduled on July 18 in the Supreme Court, the education ministry has maintained the incidents of paper leaks were localised.
The petitioners have also sought a probe into the alleged malpractices.
The ministry has informed the Supreme Court that a data analysis of the results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras which found there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates benefiting from it and scoring abnormally high marks.
The government's assertion assumes significance in view of the observations made by the top court on July 8 that it may order a re-test only if there were large-scale malpractices in holding the exam.
The matter is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Over 23.33 lakh students had taken the test on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.
