New Delhi: More than two dozen students from different universities and members of various students' outfits were detained on Thursday while they were protesting against the cancellation of the UGC-NET examination and irregularities in the NEET.
The students were detained from outside the Ministry of Education as well as the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's residence here in central Delhi. A large number of students, including members of political outfits such as the Students' Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Association (AISA), Democratic Students' Front (DSF), Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), and Congress-affiliated NSUI participated in the protest.
The students gathered outside the Education Ministry and Pradhan's residence demanding a ban on the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body which conducts the examination and a probe into the alleged paper leak. The Union Education Ministry late Wednesday night ordered the cancellation of UGC-NET following inputs of the exam's integrity being compromised.
"We have seen massive discrepancies on the result of NEET-UG declared on 4 June. NEET aspirants have been demanding a re-exam. However the NTA and the MoE has not responded to their demands.
"Now the UGC NET examination has been cancelled due to paper leak... NTA has failed students time and again. We demand a complete scrapping of the NTA," AISA unit of JNU in a statement said.
Students who joined the protest were manhandled and assaulted by the police, the outfits alleged. "Female students were heckled and manhandled brutally," said the SFI.
The DSF said, "Instead of addressing the concerns of the students and holding the NTA accountable, the Delhi Police brutally attacked and detained several students including JNUSU representatives from the protest site."
The claims were refuted by the police who said permission was not taken to protest in the high security area, which remains under section 144. The students outfits also demanded the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmender Pradhan over the alleged corruption in the exams.
Earlier in the day, several members of the National Students' Union of India were detained while protesting outside Pradhan's residence here. During the protest, NSUI national president Varun Choudhary flung a bag full of counterfeit currency in the air and demanded an urgent probe into the matter.
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