Students' Legitimate Complaints Must Be Resolved through Probe: Priyanka on NEET 'Irregularities'

Alleging of irregularities in NEET results, many candidates took to social media demanding cancellation of the results and a re-exam. They alleged that many of the scores are mathematically impossible as per NEET marking scheme.

New Delhi:Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday hit out at the Modi government for allegedly ignoring the voices of students over complaints of paper leak and irregularities in the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). She called for an investigation to address the "legitimate complaints" of the students.

Over 24 lakh students appeared in the NEET, held on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 517 cities, and the results were declared on June 4. Several candidates complained that inflation of marks has led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank of 720 out of 720. Infact, six of these top scorers were found to be from the same exam centre in Haryana. Earlier too, there were allegations of paper leak in a few states including Bihar and Rajasthan.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), however, denied all allegations of irregularities stating the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks. It also said that the higher cut-off scores are determined by the overall performance.

In a post in Hindi on her X handle, Gandhi said, "First the NEET exam paper was leaked and now the students allege that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised on 6 students of the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to the fore."

On reports of NEET candidates resorting to suicide after declaration of results, Gandhi said it is very sad and shocking. "Why is the government ignoring the voice of lakhs of students? Students want answers to legitimate questions related to the rigging in the NEET exam results," the Congress general secretary said. Is it not the government's responsibility to resolve these "legitimate complaints" by conducting an investigation, Gandhi asked.

Meanwhile, students have been taking to social media demanding cancellation of the results and re-examination. They claimed that the scores were mathematically impossible as per the NEET marking scheme. Some students even called for protests in Mumbai urging others to join in.

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