NEET-UG paper leak | Students left in despair as Karnataka govt revives demand to scrap NEET

Bengaluru: Karnataka reiterated its demand to scrap the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions after the the union government cancelled it Tuesday following a paper leak, which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said would impact more than a lakh students from the state.

Gouri, a medical seat aspirant who wrote NEET on May 3, was expecting a good rank. "We were relaxed and waiting for the result. Imagine how it must feel to be asked to write the test again,” she said.

“Students worked hard for months, while parents spent on coaching, travel and other expenses with the hope of a fair exam. In one stroke, the Union Government has pushed them back into uncertainty and distress,” Siddaramaiah said in a statement.

Siddaramaiah said that his government had, in 2024, flagged that NEET was “unfair to rural, poor students” and that it “weakens school education” while snatching the “rightful authority” of the state over admissions. “Today’s cancellation proves that our concerns were real, urgent and rooted in the interests of students,” he said.

“We demand a transparent, time-bound investigation, strict punishment for the guilty, immediate clarity on the fresh exam schedule, and restoration of States’ authority to conduct such entrance exams,” Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah slammed the Modi administration for “a long series of paper leaks and exam failures”, which he said have become “a recurring symbol of its failure to protect merit”.

Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar said the union government should file an affidavit before the Supreme Court on its inability to conduct NEET. “We’ve been conducting admissions to engineering courses without any such malpractice. The union government can hold a separate test for the all-India quota,” he said.

According to Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, coaching centres in Rajasthan and Haryana are “actively orchestrating” paper leaks. “Elements within the central government are complicit in this racket,” he said, calling for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.

Govt plans to go ahead with engg seat allotment

The NEET re-exam will lead to a delay in the allotment of engineering seats in Karnataka. The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) wants to allot engineering seats without waiting for the NEET results. "Every year, the NEET counselling schedule is affecting the allotment of engineering seats," a KEA official said. Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar said: "We're planning to commence engineering seat allotment as per the schedule instead of waiting for NEET."

Can't blame govt entirely, says HDK

Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy said the Centre cannot be blamed entirely over the NEET fiasco and blasted the Congress for criticising the Modi administration. "We can't blame the government entirely for someone's mistake," he said. "Several such problems have been witnessed in the state under Congress governments. The government isn't able to fix the KPSC, whose downfall started with Congress coming to power in 2013 and rates were fixed for every post," he said.