NTA has issued its clarification on the ongoing controversy regarding NEET. The agency has put forth its views on all the issues.
As soon as the NEET result was released, students and experts started raising questions on NTA. Some people called it a scam and some called it negligence. Now NTA has issued its clarification on this. NTA issued a notice on Thursday saying that people are raising concerns about the recent increase in cut-off scores and the number of top scorers in NEET-UG exam. NTA said that cutoff scores are determined every year based on the overall performance of the candidates.
The cutoff score is decided every year based on the overall performance of the candidate, the NTA said in the notice. The increase in the cutoff reflects the competitive nature of the examination and the high performance standard achieved by the candidates this year. The cutoff and average marks (out of 720) of eligible candidates vary every year. The NTA said that the cutoff for the general category was 147 in 2020, 138 in 2021, 117 in 2022, 137 in 2023 and 164 in 2024. It was further informed that CCTV cameras were installed at all the examination centers, so that there is no compromise on the sanctity of the examination.
The NTA has denied allegations of irregularities and inflated marks in the NEET-UG exam. They attributed the high scores to several factors, including recent changes made to NCERT books and grace marks being given at some exam centres to make up for lost time. The NTA further said that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of candidates appearing for the exam, from 20,38,596 in 2023 to 23,33,297 in 2024. This is the reason why these cutoffs have become so high.
Talking about the issue of grace marks, the NTA said that several petitions were filed by NEET-UG candidates in the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Delhi and Chhattisgarh. These petitions stated about the loss of examination time due to some issues at some examination centres, due to which it was decided to give grace marks to those students. "The concerns raised by the candidates regarding loss of examination time through writ petitions and representations were explored, and 1,563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time, and the revised marks of such candidates vary from 20 to 720 marks. Out of these, the marks of two candidates are also 718 and 719 due to compensatory marks.' NTA said that there was no paper leak.
The NEET UG 2024 exam was held on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities including 14 foreign cities, with over 24 lakh candidates appearing for the exam. The controversy escalated when the NTA released the results and cutoffs, names of toppers on June 4. Lakhs of students demanded the NTA to conduct the exam again and also sought the Supreme Court's intervention in the matter. Students raised concerns about how 67 candidates secured the top rank, pointing to a possible increase in the numbers. Notably, 6 of these top scorers were from the same exam centre in Haryana, raising doubts over the exam process.