Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Saturday demanded the Centre to order a probe by a high-level expert committee into the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). Reacting to reports of malpractices in the exam held for candidates aspiring to pursue undergraduate medical, dental and AYUSH courses in government and private institutions in the country, he said the government wanted an immediate response to the issue which is linked to the future of lakhs of students. He informed that in this year’s NEET exam, 67 students secured the first position by scoring 720 out of 720 marks, which was quite unusual and never happened before. Moreover, this time many students have scored as high as 718 and 719 in the exam. NEET has its own unique ranking system, where each correct answer is worth 4 marks, while one mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. He said that it was not possible to score 718 to 719 marks in such a ranking. Results of over 1500 students who got grace marks in NEET-UG will be re-examined: NTA
When asked about this, the organisers have claimed to give grace marks. Some students were given up to 100 grace marks at a time. But they did not clarify what pattern was adopted to give grace marks. He wanted to know from the organisers why the NEET results were declared earlier and why they were released in a hurry on the day of election results. This raises many doubts, he said, adding that the newly formed NDA government will have to face many challenges in this matter. He wondered why no student from Telangana could get in the top 5 ranks in NEET in the last 5 years. “We believe that the reason for this is definitely the irregularities in the NEET exam,” he said. He also demanded the NEET organisers to disclose the process of allocating grace marks. BRS wants every student to benefit in a standard way from this method adopted in NEET. But grace marks were added in such a way that only a group of 1500 students got the benefit. He demanded that the entire matter be investigated by a high-level expert committee and said that this is not the right way. Those who have committed irregularities should be given strict punishment. He demanded that the irregularities and malpractices in the NEET exam should be exposed and the students should get justice.