NEET-UG held at over 5,400 centres under strict security, no reports of untoward incidents

New Delhi: Medical entrance exam NEET-UG was held at more than 5,400 centres around the country amid strict monitoring and security measures on Sunday, officials said.

More than 22.7 lakh candidates had registered for the test. The official attendance data will be available in a few hours.

Mock drills were held at all National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) centres on Saturday to ensure smooth conduct of the nationwide exam. Most of the centres were located in government and government-aided schools, colleges, universities and institutions.

While no untoward incidents have been reported so far, members of the Brahmin community held a protest outside an exam centre in Karnataka's Kalaburagi, demanding accountability after some students from the community were asked to remove their 'janivara (sacred thread)' before entering the exam hall.

Three men were detained by the Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan Police for allegedly trying to dupe a candidate of Rs 40 lakh by promising him the question paper.

In Bhubaneshwar, police arrested four members of an interstate gang for allegedly taking money from aspirants for admission in a medical college.

"There were three layers of monitoring today -- at the district, state, and central levels. To ensure smooth and secure conduct of the exam, mock drills were conducted at all centres. These drills helped in testing readiness in terms of functionality of mobile signal jammers, availability of adequate manpower for frisking, and biometric authentication procedures," an official said.

Transporting question papers under police escort, monitoring coaching centres to identify organised cheating rackets, multi-layered frisking by district police in addition to designated security personnel at the exam centres were among the steps taken by the National Testing Agency (NTA), led by the Union education ministry.

The strict measures came a year after alleged irregularities, including paper leaks, were flagged in NEET-UG that put the exam's integrity under scanner.

In a crackdown on fake claims about NEET-UG, the NTA identified 106 Telegram and 16 Instagram channels involved in spreading false information.

The NTA's dedicated portal for receiving such concerns has flagged more than 1,500 claims of paper leaks for the exam.

In a decisive move to protect the exam process' integrity, the agency had earlier this week initiated action against certain Telegram and Instagram channels that claimed to have access to the question paper.

The NTA requested Telegram and Instagram to immediately take down the channels to prevent the spread of falsehood and unnecessary panic among the aspirants.

The Union education ministry had held a series of meetings with district magistrates and superintendents of police from all states and Union territories to ensure there were no lapses in the conduct of the exam.

Under scrutiny over last year's irregularities in NEET-UG and the PhD entrance exam, the Centre set up a panel to ensure "transparent, smooth and fair" conduct of exams by the NTA.

The University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) was cancelled last year after the ministry received input that its integrity was compromised.

Both matters are being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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