NEET-PG exam postponed amid paper leaks row; fresh date to be announced soon

NEW DELHI: The NEET-PG examination has been postponed and a fresh date will be announced at the earliest, the health ministry said on Saturday. The exam was scheduled to be held on June 23.
"Taking into consideration the recent incidents of allegations regarding the integrity of certain competitive examinations, the ministry of health has decided to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of the NEET-PG Entrance Examination, conducted by the National Board of Examination (NTA) for medical students," read the statement by the ministry.

The fresh date of this examination will be notified at the earliest, it said.
"Ministry of Health sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to the students. This decision has been taken in the best interests of the students and to maintain the sanctity of the examination process," the ministry said.

Attacking the Centre for postponing the exam at the last moment, Congress leader Pawan Khera said the BJP-led government "has completely lost its trust among the youth".
"NEET-PG exam which was supposed to be held tomorrow has been postponed tonight ... This government is not able to conduct exams. This government has completely lost its trust among the youth. The education minister who was giving a clean chit to NTA 4 days ago, is now removing the Director General of NTA. Who is responsible for the exams? Who is being saved? When will this investigation happen? When will this government be able to get the exam done properly? People are not getting answers to these questions."

The announcement came moments after the Centre replaced the National Testing Agency's director general amid the NEET-NET paper leaks row. The high-level shake-up comes a day ahead of the retest of 1,563 NEET candidates.
The Centre removed NTA director general Subodh Kumar Singh from his post and put him on "compulsory wait" in DoPT amid recent irregularities in exams including NEET and UCG-NET.
Meanwhile, Pradeep Singh Kharola has been given additional charge of the post of Director General, National Testing Agency (NTA) by the ministry.

Earlier in the day, the ministry of education constituted a high-level committee of experts to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations amid the NEET and UGC-NET row. The 7-member committee will be led by former Isro chief Dr K Radhakrishnan. The committee also includes Dr Randeep Guleria, Prof B J Rao, Prof. Ramamurthy K, Pankaj Bansal, Aditya Mittal, Govind Jaiswal.

The committee will submit its report to the ministry within 2 months.
The high-level panel will analyse the end-to-end examination process and also suggest measures to improve the efficiency of the system, according to the statement from the ministry of education.

On June 21, amid the raging row over irregularities in exams, the National Testing Agency had announced the postponement of the June edition of the Joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test, citing unavoidable circumstances and logistic issues.
The Joint CSIR-UGC-NET is a test conducted to determine eligibility for junior research fellowship and assistant professor and admission to PhD in science courses.
The postponement came two days after the NTA cancelled the UGC-NET examination within 24 hours of its conduct, saying the integrity of the exam had been compromised.
Commenting on the matter, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said the "top leadership" of the National Testing Agency is under the scanner over alleged irregularities in competitive exams NEET and NET, even as he denied any paper leak in the CSIR-UGC NET.
The minister said he is the custodian of students' interests and has to take that into account before taking any step.
"There was no leak in CSIR-UGC NET, it was postponed because of logistic issues. There is also a retest of 1,563 NEET candidates tomorrow. For smooth conduct of the exam everywhere, the decision was taken," Pradhan told reporters.
On Friday night, the Centre operationalised a stringent law that aims to curb malpractice and irregularities in competitive examinations and entails provisions for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore for offenders.
(With inputs from agencies)