West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar alleging irregularities in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in the state. She suggested the ministry could consider re-examination, which holds key to all the medical and dental seats across the country, at some of the affected centres. NEET was conducted in 136 cities on Sunday.
Banerjee, citing media reports, said there were many examination centres in the state where students were not provided question papers in Bengali on time, and many others were given question papers in English and Hindi. At some other centres, they were handed photocopies of question papers, bearing the same candidate code of multiple students. The CM also gave reference of a central school located in the city, where only 520 question papers were provided when there were 600 students appearing for the test in the centre.
“I strongly urge you to take immediate action against persons responsible for such irregularities, and also take suitable measures so that the candidates are not adversely affected, due to non-availability of appropriate question papers. And if need be, re-examination be scheduled to give a fair opportunity to all such candidates,” the chief minister wrote in the letter to Javadekar.
Banerjee also suggested setting up of a coordination mechanism at the institutional level, with the state government and the CBSE, for making proper arrangements for examinations.
“You are kindly aware that similar concerns were highlighted in the 2017 NEET UG examination conducted by CBSE and subsequently we were assured that such irregularities would not be repeated. It appears that the examination conducting authorities have not been careful enough to ensure that the examination is meticulously held and the career of prospective candidates not jeopardised,” she said in the letter.