Maintaining that the government does not intend to hurt the interests of lakhs who legitimately cleared the entrance exams, the authorities are drawing a contrast with the cancellation of All India Pre-Medical Tests in 2004 and 2015.
In the first case, investigation by Delhi Police’s crime branch brought out the complicity of a CBSE employee which raised fears of the examination process having been subverted on a larger scale.
In 2015 too, the gang behind the leak was found to have helped applicants in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. As against this, Bihar Police’s investigation so far shows that the “leak” remained confined to Patna.
Spelling out the stand, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the govt does not intend to hurt the career and future of meritorious students only to buy peace with the protesters and opposition parties who have been demanding the scrapping of the test.
“As custodian of the interests of students, we have to take a judicious approach to investigate the irregularity and how it happened, punish those involved, ensure that there is no repeat while also ensuring that the meritorious students who have done no wrong are not unfairly penalised,” said the minister.
Denying that paper leak was the reason for the postponement of CSIR-UGC-NET, a test conducted to determine eligibility for junior research fellowship and assistant professor and admission to PhD in science courses, Pradhan said: “There was no leak in CSIR-UGC NET. It was postponed because of logistic issues. There is also a retest of 1,563 NEET candidates tomorrow (Sunday). For smooth conduct of the exam everywhere, the decision was taken.” Appreciating Bihar Police and Gujarat Police for their pre-emptive action, he said: “We must remember stakes of many meritorious students are on the cards. And also the Supreme Court is monitoring the matter.” The controversy around NEET-UG is multi-dimensional. MoE had earlier this week sought a report from Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU).
