NEET UG 2024: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday once again refused to stay the process of NEET-UG 2024 counselling and issued a notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA). The top court has tagged the fresh pleas along with pending petitions and set the next date of hearing in the matter on July 8.
In another development related to the NEET UG alleged paper leak case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is expected to question former Bihar chief minister Tejashwi Yadav's personal secretary Pritam Kumar over his alleged connection with Sikander Prasad Yadvendu, a junior engineer accused of sharing the NEET question paper and answer with students before the entrance exam.
Meanwhile, Opposition leaders have upped the ante against the government and the National Testing Agency over alleged irregularities in the NEET exam as well as the cancellation of UGC-NET and accused them of destroying the future of students.
Some opposition leaders have also demanded the sacking of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the disbanding of the National Testing Agency (NTA), claiming paper leak is an "anti-national activity" as it plays with the future of students.
Leading the opposition attack, Rahul Gandhi alleged the main reason for paper leaks is that educational institutions have been "captured" by the BJP and its parent organisation RSS, and paper leaks will not stop unless it is reversed.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has facilitated this capture. This (paper leak) is an anti-national activity as it severely harms the country's youth, who are the nation's future and it hurts students," he said.
The former Congress chief also alleged the BJP government at the Centre wants to "expand the "Vyapam model" of Madhya Pradesh.
The scam in Vyapam or Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board broke out in 2013, wherein candidates had bribed officials and rigged exams by deploying imposters to write their answers.
On Wednesday, the University Grants Commission cancelled the UGC-NET examination, a day after it was held, upon receiving certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) over the exam.
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