New Delhi: Amidst allegations of irregularities, paper leaks, and a significant increase in merit list scores, numerous medical aspirants are demanding a retest for NEET-UG 2024. The Centre's decision to revoke grace marks for 1,563 students has failed to pacify their concerns. Student organizations and youth wings of various political parties are staging protests nationwide to highlight issues surrounding the prestigious exam, which saw 67 students achieving a perfect score of 720—a first in the National Testing Agency's (NTA) history. With ongoing reports of paper leaks and other discrepancies, many students have expressed disillusionment with the exam's administration.
While calls for a thorough investigation into the alleged paper leak persist, many believe the retest offered to 1,563 students is merely cosmetic.
"The inflation in marks is too much to be offset by a selective retest of 1,563 students. I think revaluation of marks of each student will be a good thing, otherwise a universal retest, but then the government must give us one to two months to prepare," Aheli Ghosh Hazra, a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirant from West Bengal, told PTI.
On the conduct of NEET this year, she said, "You cannot fix a sick tree by just taking a sick leaf out of it. The whole tree must be uprooted. We have no clue to what extent the rigging took place." Another aspirant from Madhya Pradesh said things look "fairly unjust" from his point of view.
"They just want to get it over with. They also want to hide the paper leak scam," Animesh, a NEET aspirant from Madhya Pradesh, said.
"Things are not very clear… I think the matter should be probed by a third party which is not biased towards the NTA," he added.
Animesh demanded a retest for all candidates.
"Only those with scores above 650 would have an issue with a retest. There must be a retest, but they must give some more time to students. Everyone is out of momentum. Everyone is bogged down by media reports. Logistically, it won't be feasible for the NTA too to conduct retest in a short time," he said.
Tejas Gaur of Delhi, who cleared the NEET exam, said he would retake the exam, if it is conducted again.
"I do not think the scam is limited to 1,563 students. The number is too low to have caused such an inflation in the marks," Tejas, who got 4,627th rank, said.
Notably, the NEET-UG examination is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.
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