NEET exam frisking: Kerala seeks Centre's intervention

Taking cognizance of the Kollam district incident, where friskers forced girl to remove her undergarments, Kerala education minister has written a letter to union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu has shot off a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, seeking strong against the agency, which allegedly forced girl students to remove their undergarments before entering a NEET exam centre in Kollam district. In her letter to the Union Minister, the Kerala minister expressed "dismay and shock" at the news of "naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students" who appeared for NEET examination in an exam centre at Ayur in that district on Sunday.

Bindu said an agency that has been entrusted with the conduct of the examination allegedly forced the girl participants to strip before entering the test centre for reasons known only to themselves. "The shame and shock of this unexpected turn of events have affected the morale and composure of the students whose performance in the test was consequently affected," she said and strongly recommended action against the agency to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature and sought the Union Minister's intervention in the matter.

"I write to place on record that we take strong exception to such inhuman behaviour from an agency that has only been entrusted with the task of conducting the examination in a fair manner", the minister said. The issue came to light on Monday when the father of a 17-year-old girl told the media that his daughter, who was sitting for her first-ever NEET exam, was yet to come out of the traumatic experience wherein she had to sit for the over 3-hour-long exam without a brassiere.

The father had told media that his daughter was dressed as per the dress code mentioned in the NEET bulletin which did not say anything about innerwear. The Kerala police has registered a case against the friskers allegedly involved in the incident on the basis of the complaint filed by the girl.

National Testing Agency (NTA) has formed a Fact Finding Committee to visit Kerala's Kollam following an alleged incident in which a student was asked to remove her innerwear before appearing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).

It has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Education through various media reports that an incident allegedly happened in one of the centres of NEET (UG)- 2022 near Kollam district in Kerala. NTA has already issued a clarification in this regard.

"V. Muraleedharan, MOS, Ministry of External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs and other public representatives from Kerala have met theUnion Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday in this regard," stated the Ministry of Education on Tuesday.

The Ministry further said that Dr R Bindu, Minister of Higher Education and Social Justice, Government of Kerala has also written a letter to Union Education Minister. In view of the above, the Ministry of Education has asked the National Testing Agency to ascertain all the facts about the incident on the spot from stakeholders present at the Centre at that time. (PTI)