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Journalism of Courage
Under fire over its conduct of the NEET examinations, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is learnt to have conveyed to the Education Ministry that examinees from Patna and Godhra, under scrutiny for benefitting from alleged irregularities, do not appear to have had any unusual advantage as per an analysis of their marks.
Of the 13 candidates from Patna, who are under the Bihar Police scanner in their investigation into allegations of a paper leak, eight have scored less than 500 marks out of 720, The Indian Express has learnt. Almost 98% of the students who appeared from two exam centres in Godhra, which are being probed for manipulation of OMR sheets, have also scored less than 500 marks.
To get a seat in a government medical college under the all-India quota, a score of 650-plus of 720 is considered the norm.
This analysis is part of the NTA’s note on the allegations regarding the conduct of NEET-UG this year, which the agency submitted to the Ministry this week. The Union government, it is learned, will factor this in while preparing its response before the Supreme Court which will hear a batch of petitions on the conduct of the medical entrance test on July 8.
Sources said of the 13 Patna candidates, four are from general category, eight from OBC category and one candidate’s details provided by the Bihar Police does not match with NTA’s record.
Of the 12 (five women and seven men), only four have got more than 500 marks and obtained more than 90 percentile in their results. Further, the best-performing student of this lot has scored 609 marks and is ranked just under 71,000. Four of the 13 candidates have been arrested by the Bihar Police.
Explained | Why is there a controversy around NEET this year
At the two branches of Jay Jalaram School in Godhra, a total of 2,514 candidates appeared for the test and barely above 2% (or 58 students) have got more than 500 marks.
The two centres are under scrutiny for allegedly being at the centre of a nexus between a coaching institute and staff at the exam centre. Of the 58, eight candidates have scored more than 640 marks. Here, allegedly, some students had help in filing the right choices in their OMR sheets.
As an additional exercise, the NTA has also included the analysis of the results of all students who sat for the paper at 12 centres, which the Bihar Police suspect could have been affected by the alleged paper leak.
Of the 12 centres, 11 are in Patna and one in Hajipur. The analysis shows that a total of 10,352 students appeared for the exam from these 12 centres, 5,803 have qualified the exam. Only 440 of the total candidates (or 4%) scored more than 600 marks.
Announced on June 4, the NEET-UG results drew immediate attention after 67 candidates got the perfect score of 720/720 and some candidates got 718 or 719 — marks others claimed were not possible in the scheme of the exam. The NTA attributed this to a combination of factors including a relatively easier paper, the decision to award additional marks to students who lost time during the exam because of errors and delays on the part of NTA staff and invigilators, and an incorrect question.
While the NTA has decided to withdraw grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates who were first compensated for lost time and conduct their retest, the government has been denying allegations of paper leak and irregularities in Bihar and Godhra. However, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has told reporters that if any such allegation is found true, the culprits will not be spared.
