The National Testing Agency on Saturday said that it has set up a high-powered committee to look into the grievances of 1,600 students who appeared in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test for admission in medical colleges, The Hindu reported.
The results of the entrance examination to medical colleges for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery or MBBS were announced on Tuesday. Subsequently, several aspirants alleged that an inflation of marks had led to 67 candidates securing the top rank, including six from the same examination centre.
Some reports also alleged that at some centres, the question paper was leaked before the examination.
The National Testing Agency, which conducts the examination, denied the allegations, saying that a revision in the answer key of the physics paper, along with compensatory marks provided for the loss of writing time, led to 67 candidates securing the top rank.
On Saturday, the Director General of the National Testing Agency, Subodh Kumar Singh, addressed a press conference, during which he denied allegations of paper leaks and claimed that question papers were shared on social media around 4.30 pm, two hours after the examination had begun. “Integrity of examination was not compromised at all,” he claimed, according to The Hindu.
Singh said that concerns were raised in only six out of 4,750 exam centres. He said that authorities would look into concerns about compensatory marks and candidates who lost time on the examination day.
On Friday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government for failing to satisfactorily address allegations that the results of this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test were rigged.
Vadra also questioned why the Centre had been “ignoring the voice of lakhs of students”.
The Congress leader noted that questions were being asked about how six students from the same examination centre had scored full marks in the paper.
“On the other hand, there are reports of many children dying by suicide across the country after the results were announced,” she said in a social media post. “This is very sad and shocking.”
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