New Delhi: Amid allegations of paper leak and marking system irregularities in NEET (UG), Subodh Kumar Singh, Director General, National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday said the integrity of the exam was not compromised and no paper leak happened.
Briefing the media here, Singh said, "The committee met and examined all the details of the exam centres and CCTV cameras installed there. They noticed that at some centres time was lost and students should be compensated for this. After that grace marks were awarded to some students, thereby addressing their grievances."
"Out of 4750 exam centres, this issue was faced at 6 centres and out of 23 lakh students who appeared in the exam around 1600 students faced problem," he said adding, "We have set up a grievance redressal committee of experts. It will look into the issue of grace marks that were awarded for time loss," NTA DG said.
On declaration of NEET (UG) results on June 4 instead of June 14 as announced in the information bulletin, NTA DG said that as the results were ready by June 4, there was no reason to delay the announcement by another ten days. Moreover, NTA has been working towards improving the result declaration time from year to year, Singh said.
Commenting on the issue of high cut-off marks, he stated that this varies depending on relative performance of candidates. This time, 67 candidates scored 720 out of 720. Out of the 67 students, 44 are those whose marks were revised in one Physics answer, for which two options have been now been taken as correct.
Earlier, raising concern over the issue, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that alleged paper leak, rigging and corruption have become an integral part of many exams including NEET.
Kharge took to his X handle saying, "Paper leak, rigging and corruption have become an integral part of many exams including NEET. The Modi government is directly responsible for this. For the candidates, appearing in the recruitment exams, then facing several irregularities, getting caught in the labyrinth of paper leaks, is playing with their future. The BJP has cheated the youth of the country. We demand that a high-level investigation should be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court so that our talented students participating in NEET and other exams get justice."
Opposition parties have demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe into the alleged NEET irregularities.
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