The Maharashtra government has urgently requested the annulment of last month’s NEET examination, claiming that the results have unfairly impacted students from the state. Numerous candidates of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, which took place on May 5 across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, have previously accused the inflation of scores, resulting in an unprecedented 67 candidates achieving the highest rank, including six from a single examination centre in Haryana.
The examination results were announced on June 4. Despite this, the National Testing Agency refuted any irregularities, attributing students’ higher scores to alterations in NCERT textbooks and the provision of grace marks for time lost at examination centres.
On Friday, Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif said, “The NEET exams were probably conducted after taking money. The results are such that no student of Maharashtra will get admission for the MBBS course in government or private college in the state.” He said parents of many students have approached him seeking to address the issue.
“This has caused injustice to Maharashtra and it must be immediately cancelled. We are going to tell NMC about it,” he said. Mushrif said the government was even contemplating approaching the court over the issue. NEET-UG is the qualifying entrance exam for admission to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery, and Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery and BSc Nursing courses.
There are more than 80,000 MBBS seats in over 540 medical colleges in the country. Congress has earlier targeted the government on the issue. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday called for the resolution of students’ “legitimate complaints” through an investigation, “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.” There are reports of many children committing suicide across the country after the results were announced, Gandhi said and asked, “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.”
Trends emerging from the latest #NEET results have once again vindicated our principled opposition to the exam.
Issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at specific centres, and award of marks, which are mathematically impossible, under the guise of grace…
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) June 7, 2024
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin also opposed the NEET saying the entrance test goes against social justice and federalism. “Issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at specific centres, and award of marks which are mathematically impossible under the guise of grace marks highlight the pitfalls of the current union government’s centralisation. These events emphasise the need to restore the pre-eminence of state governments and school education system’s role in determining criteria for professional course selection, he said,” he said on X.