DK Shivakumar appeals to Centre to allow states to conduct NEET exams

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 15 (ANI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday appealed to the central government to allow states to conduct the NEET exams themselves.
Expressing his concern, Shivakumar told ANI, "I appeal to the government of India to allow our states to conduct the exams ourselves. Let all the students also participate. We will also give reservations to them at all India level. Lot of injustice has been done to the students and we don't agree with the NEET policy..."
He criticised the NDA government stating that no action has been taken by them.
"Unfortunately, no action has been taken... They (NDA government) should have just gone to a thorough inquiry. Arrest should have been made. This is a serious crime, and it is about the future of lakhs of students," Shivakumar added.
His remarks follow widespread concerns over reported paper leaks and the allocation of grace marks during the May 5 exam, which was administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA) across 4,750 examination centres for approximately 24 lakh students.
Meanwhile, the NTA told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the scorecards of 1563 candidates who got "grace marks" in the NEET-UG exam will be cancelled and the candidates will have a chance to reappear for the exam on June 23 and the results will be declared before June 30.
The NTA told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that a committee has been constituted to review the results of over 1,563 candidates who were awarded "grace marks" to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for NEET-UG.
"The Committee has decided to cancel the scorecards of 1563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given grace marks and these students will be given the option to take a re-test," NTA said.
"The exam will be conducted on June 23 and the results will be declared before June 30," it added. The Apex Court reiterated that it will not continue the counselling of NEET-UG, 2024.
"Counselling will go on and we will not stop it. If the exam goes, then everything goes in totality, so there is nothing to fear," said the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will hear the petitions on July 8.
Several petitions were filed in the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5.
The NEET-UG examination, conducted by the NTA, paves the way for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. (ANI)