Neet Exam Row Health Panel To Discuss Nta Nmc Functioning

A Parliamentary Standing Committee will next week take up the functional proficiency of regulatory institutions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in connection with the conduct of the NEET medical entrance examination. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, headed by Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, will discuss the matter in detail at its meeting on July 16.

At this meeting, the panel will examine the “organisational structure, mandate and functional proficiency of regulatory institutions” under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, along with the “conduct of NEET examinations under the NMC Act, 2019.”

A day earlier, on July 15, the same committee will hold a separate meeting to discuss the affordability and accessibility of healthcare facilities in the public and private sectors.

This is the third parliamentary panel to take up the NEET issue. It has already been examined by the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, and by the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances.

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The two panels had earlier summoned senior officials from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, along with representatives of the National Testing Agency (NTA), the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the NEET paper leak case.

Among those summoned were Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh, and the NMC chairperson. Discussions with them focused on measures to strengthen the NTA to prevent paper leaks in the medical entrance examination.

The NEET-UG exam, originally held on May 3, was cancelled by the government following allegations of a paper leak and was re-conducted on June 21.

In a Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress member Mukul Wasnik, on July 1, the committee examined the conduct of the NEET-UG re-examination and explored what structural reforms the NTA requires going forward. In the same panel, the members of a parliamentary standing committee pushed for granting statutory status to the National Testing Agency (NTA), arguing that the examination body needs stronger legal powers and institutional independence to single-handedly manage large-scale tests such as the NEET-UG.

Earlier, the same committee asked NTA to clarify its definition of a “paper leak” and whether such incidents have occurred in exams conducted since 2018. PTI reported that NTA officials, in their earlier deposition, denied any leak from their system, claiming instead that some questions from a guess paper had circulated.