NEET Paper Leak Case: Latur Professor Alerted NTA In April About Malpractice, But Received No Response

NEET Paper Leak Case: A professor from Latur in April raised concerns with NTA about possible malpractice in exams involving Maharashtra students travelling long distances for NEET UG 2024 exam.

Students protest over alleged paper leak in NEET exam. (Representative Image)

Source : PTI

A professor from Latur, Dilip Deshmukh, Director of Rajarshi Shahu Junior Science College, emailed the National Testing Agency (NTA) in April, raising concerns about potential malpractice at exam centers. He expressed his worries that students from Maharashtra were traveling long distances, up to 800-1000 kilometers, to take exams in other states, which he feared could compromise the integrity of the NEET UG exam. Despite his efforts, Deshmukh did not receive any response from the NTA regarding his email.

Speaking to ABP News, Deshmukh highlighted cases where students who had scored poorly in 2022 exams significantly improved their scores when they took exams in Karnataka's Belagavi in 2023. He emphasised that these discrepancies prompted him to alert NTA via email, but he did not receive any response from them.

Deshmukh's email was sent when there were uncertainties surrounding the NEET UG exam, and he believes that if the NTA had been more active, the exam results might have been different. The NTA's lack of response has raised questions about its readiness to address educators' concerns regarding exam integrity and fairness. Local authorities in Latur have recently taken action in connection with allegations of the NEET UG paper leak. 

Dilip Deshmukh’s email to the National Testing Agency stated, "Students and parents have doubts that many malpractices are taking place in the NEET exam. Some students opt for an exam center located 800-1000 km or more away from the state where they live. The students whose marks in the previous year NEET were very low and they are doing MBBS with 600+ marks by doing such practices. It is suspicious that the marks have increased so much. While filling out online application forms for NEET They are given temporary and permanent addresses of the state from where they want to take the NEET exam. They are taking advantage of the fact that they can choose centers based on the filled address in the NEET application form and it is not cross-checked with any documents,".

In recent developments, following allegations of NEET and NET paper leaks, the central government has initiated a public consultation to gather ideas on improving the examination processes managed by the National Testing Agency (NTA). This initiative follows a high-level meeting convened by the Ministry of Education, which focuses on gathering input, views, and ideas from stakeholders.