NEET-UG 2024: Centre's 7-member panel on exam reform to meet today; updates

According to the Ministry of Education, the seven-member high-level panel will review the entire examination process and propose ways to enhance system efficiency

The high-level panel, established by the Centre on Saturday, to propose exam reforms and review the operations of the National Testing Agency (NTA) will meet on Monday. The panel is led by former Isro chief K Radhakrishnan.

The seven-member committee includes Randeep Guleria, Pankaj Bansal, Ramamurthy K, B J Rao, Govind Jaiswal, and Aditya Mittal.

According to the Ministry of Education, the high-level panel will review the examination process and propose ways to enhance system efficiency. The committee will also extensively evaluate the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and protocols of the NTA, recommending enhancements to these protocols and implementing monitoring mechanisms to ensure adherence at all levels.

 

Here are 10 updates on the NEET-UG 2024 row:

1. On Monday, petitioners in the NEET-UG case submitted an application to the Supreme Court, urging the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 examination.

2. On Sunday, only 813 out of 1,563 students appeared for the NEET-UG exam. These students had previously received grace marks from the National Testing Agency to compensate for time lost due to a delayed start at six centres on May 5. Allegations were made that this led to inflated scores, with six students from the same centre in Haryana achieving perfect scores of 720. Overall, an impressive 67 students across the country scored full marks in the NEET-UG exam.

3. The Ministry of Education has requested the CBI to investigate the alleged irregularities, which include conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust, and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes, and intermediaries. The investigation will also look into the involvement of public officials.

4. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR in the NEET-UG case under sections 20B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating). Additionally, the Bihar and Gujarat governments announced on Sunday that they would transfer the NEET-UG paper leak cases, initially handled by their police, to the CBI.

5. On Sunday, the Patna police arrested five people who had been detained in Deoghar, Jharkhand. All the accused — Baldev Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Panku Kumar, Rajeev Kumar, and Paramjeet Singh — are residents of Nalanda.

6. According to the police, Baldev Kumar, linked to the infamous Sanjeev Kumar, also known as Lutan Mukhiya gang, reportedly received a PDF file containing the solved answer sheet for the NEET-UG exam on his mobile phone a day before the exam. The statement also alleged that the Mukhiya gang, accused of organising several inter-state exam paper leaks, was responsible for the leak.

7. Baldev and his associates printed the answer sheets for students who had gathered at a safe house in Ram Krishna Nagar, Patna, on May 4. Nitish Kumar and Amit Anand, arrested earlier, brought the students to the safe house.

8. According to the police statement, the Mukhiya gang got the NEET-UG question paper from a private school in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.

9. During an investigation in Bihar, the police found a partially burnt question paper at the Patna safe house. Upon comparison with the reference question paper from the NTA, they confirmed it as the source of the leak.

10. The NTA had disqualified 63 students in Bihar for using unfair methods in the NEET-UG exam. On Saturday, it disqualified 30 students from Godhara, Gujarat. Now, 17 more have been disqualified, bringing the total to 110.

[With agency inputs]