NEET-PG To Be Held This Month, Question Papers To Be Prepped 2 Hours Prior

New Delhi:

The NEET-PG exam – for admission to postgraduate medical courses – will be held this month, sources told NDTV Tuesday afternoon, after the Home Ministry met officials from the government’s anti-cybercrime body. The question paper will be prepared two hours earlier, sources added.

Scheduled for June 23 the NEET-PG exam was postponed hours before its start amid a row over alleged irregularities, including leaked question papers, for the undergraduate exam.

The government had then said it would “undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG, conducted by the National Board of Examinations for medical students”.

The decision, the government said, had been taken in students’ best interest.

The scrapping of the exam – for which lakhs of aspiring medical professionals had enrolled – triggered furious protests, particularly from those who had travelled many kilometres to sit for the exam.

READ | “So Much Pain…”: Outrage After NEET-PG Test Postponed

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tasked a high-level committee to probe complaints.

The cancellation followed public outcry over the NEET-UG and the UGC-NET test, which confirms professorial appointments to colleges and universities, and is used to award research fellowships.

Possible indiscretions in the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams – Mr Pradhan last month confirmed what students red-flagged, that questions were being sold on the darknet – put the spotlight on the National Testing Agency, which conducts both tests, and which saw its chief, SK Singh, sacked.

The NET will now be held from July 25 to July 27.

The NTA has been criticised by students and parents, as well as activists and the opposition, and, last week, also saw its office in Delhi’s Okhla area briefly captured by a mob from the NSUI, or the National Students Union of India, which is the Congress’ student wing. The Congress has been unrelenting in its attacks on the BJP, claiming cancelling the exam “destroyed” the education system.

READ | “Education System Destroyed”: Congress On NEET-PG Postponed