Fresh date for NEET-PG to be announced within 2 days, says Education Minister

PTI, NEW DELHI, June 29, 2024 :  The new schedule for NEET-PG will be announced by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) within the next two days, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday.

NEET-PG is among the exams cancelled last week as a pre-emptive measure amid a raging row over alleged irregularities in competitive tests.

“The date of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Post Graduate will be announced by the NBE in one or two days,” Pradhan told reporters in Panchkula on the sidelines of Haryana BJP’s extended state executive meeting.

The comments by Pradhan come a day after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced revised dates for three exams which were cancelled.

The University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) which was cancelled a day after being conducted on June 18 after the education ministry received inputs that the integrity of the exam was compromised, will now be conducted from August 21 to September 4.

Pradhan had said the question paper was leaked on darknet and circulated on Telegram app. The matter is being probed by the CBI.

The UGC-NET is a test to determine the eligibility for the award of Junior Research Fellowship, for appointment of assistant professors and admission to PhD courses.

In a shift from the earlier pattern, the exam was conducted in offline mode this year and on a single day. However, the rescheduled exam will be conducted according to the earlier pattern of Computer Based Test (CBT) spread across a fortnight.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) UGC-NET, which was postponed as a preemptive measure amid the row over alleged irregularities in the conduct of exams, will now be held from July 25-July 27.

The CSIR UGC-NET is accepted for PhD admissions in Chemical Sciences, Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences.

The National Common Entrance Test (NCET) for admission to the four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP), which was postponed hours before its scheduled commencement on June 12, will now be conducted on July 10.

The test is held for select central and state universities or institutions, including IITs, NITs, RIEs, and government colleges.

In the line of fire over the alleged irregularities in medical entrance examination NEET-UG and PhD entrance NET, the Centre had last week notified a panel to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.

Meanwhile, the CBI conducted searches at seven locations in Gujarat on Saturday in connection with the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam and arrested a journalist in Jharkhand, officials said. 

According to them, Jamaluddin Ansari, a journalist with a Hindi newspaper, was arrested on Friday for allegedly trying to help the principal and vice principal of a Hazaribagh school, both of whom are accused in the paper leak case. 

Oasis School's principal Ehsanul Haque and vice-principal Imtiaz Alam have already been arrested by the federal probe agency in connection with the medical entrance exam paper leak case. 

The CBI on Saturday searched the premises of suspects in Anand, Kheda, Ahmedabad and Godhra districts of Gujarat. 

The probe agency is investigating a larger conspiracy spread across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Delhi and Jharkhand. 

A special CBI court in Godhra on Saturday granted the probe agency four-day custody of Jay Jalaram School's principal Purushottam Sharma, teacher Tushar Bhatt, and middlemen Vibhor Anand and Arif Vohra, all of whom are alleged to be involved in irregularities in the May 5 NEET-UG exam in Godhra.

The Gujarat Police had arrested five people, including the principal and the teacher, in connection with the paper leak case. 

The CBI investigation has shown that the examination centres in Godhra and Kheda chosen by the National Testing Agency(NTA)  were  controlled  by  the  same  school administration, officials said.  

The officials said the CBI would interrogate Purushottam Sharma, Tushar Bhatt, Vibhor Anand and Arif Vohra, who are understood to possess crucial information pertaining to "exposing the broader conspiracy orchestrating the manipulation of the NEET-UG exam". 

The probe agency informed the court that it was essential to further the investigation, unearth the larger conspiracy and bring the masterminds to justice. 

The CBI wants to probe the "extent of the connections" of arrested persons in other states from where they have arranged the candidates and their conspiracy with the accused persons of the other FIRs lodged by CBI in other states, officials said. The CBI has registered six FIRs in the case. 

The FIR from Bihar pertains to leakage of paper while remaining from Gujarat and Rajasthan pertains to impersonation of candidates and cheating.