NEET-UG row: Youth Congress workers shave their heads; police book protestors under new criminal laws

New Delhi: Raising slogans against the BJP-led Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA), the student outfits of some I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar here on Wednesday against alleged irregularities in several competitive exams.

In a separate protest, the Congress' youth wing, Indian Youth Congress (IYC), staged a demonstration against the irregularities near the protest site.

Several Youth Congress workers shaved their heads as a sign of protest while raising "anti-Modi" slogans.

The members of the Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA), Student Federation of India (SFI), All India Students' Federation (AISF), along with the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha and the Congress' students wing NSUI gathered at the Jantar Mantar to take out a march.

The student groups aimed to march to the Parliament to press for their demands of scrapping the National Testing Agency, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation and decentralisation of entrance tests.

However, the students were not able to hold the march due to heavy police deployment and barricading at the site.

They also demanded re-examination of the medical entrance test NEET-UG for all candidates, who had appeared in the May 5 exam.

Meanwhile, the police has registered an FIR under the new criminal laws against some students, who have been staging an indefinite sit-in at the Jantar Mantar against alleged rigging in the NTA held examinations.

Over a dozen of these students belonging to different outfits, including Left backed AISA and Delhi University's KYS under the banner "India against NTA", were detained on Tuesday while attempting to march to the Parliament to press their demands. The police has now registered a case against the students under the new criminal laws, they said.

Their protest entered its eighth day on Wednesday as they joined the "Sansad Gherao" call by the student outfits of the INDIA bloc parties. An FIR was also registered against NSUI national president Varun Choudhary and some others for barging into the NTA office and putting an iron lock and chain at its entrance gate last week.

On July 1, three new criminal laws -- the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) came into effect.

The NTA on Monday released the results of the re-test held for 1,565 candidates, who were given the opportunity to compensate for the loss of time due to late staring of the exam at six centres.

Various student outfits have been demanding re-examination of the NEET- UG for all 24 lakh candidates, who had appeared in it.

In the line of fire over the alleged irregularities in the NEET and the PhD entrance NET, the Centre removed National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Subodh Singh last week and notified a high-level panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief R Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.

While the NEET is under the scanner over several irregularities, including alleged paper leaks, the UGC-NET was cancelled as the education ministry received inputs that the integrity of the exam was compromised. Both matters are being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Two other exams -- CSIR-UGC NET and NEET-PG -- were cancelled as a preemptive step.