Unfortunately, no discussion happened on NEET, says Congress MP Manish Tewari

New Delhi: After the Lok Sabha was adjourned till Monday, the opposition leaders expressed dissatisfaction that no discussion took place about the issue of the NEET controversy. Congress MP Manish Tewari called it "unfortunate" that no discussion could be held over the same.

"There are two germane issues. The first is NEET, where lakhs of students were impacted as a result of the paper leak, and the second is those criminal laws that are to be implemented on July 1, 2024. So, an adjournment motion notice had been given on NEET by the INDIA Alliance partners. I had specifically given notice about the criminal laws that their implementation must be stopped. Unfortunately, no discussion happened," said Congress MP Manish Tewari.

Speaking on the same, another Congress MP, Deepender Singh Hooda said that the future of the youth has been spoiled due to the continuous paper leaks in the country.

"The maximum number of paper leak cases have been seen in Haryana. The paper was leaked in the NEET exam and the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is running away from responsibility. We had a discussion on this and when it was raised in the House, the mike was switched off. If the mike of the Leader of the Opposition is switched off, then there will be anger among other opposition MPs, and the same happened in the House... We demand that this issue be discussed," he added.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju assured that the government is ready for discussion but the Congress has halted the proceedings, which is condemnable.

"On behalf of the government, we have made it clear that we will give detailed information on whatever issue is raised. We assure the members once again that the government is always ready for discussion. But by halting the proceedings of the House, the tendency adopted by the Congress party--not letting the House function - is not right...I condemn this. I appeal that those should not happen again," said Kiren Rijiju.

Cabinet minister of the Uttar Pradesh government, Sanjay Nishad, said that the opposition has nothing else except raising the issue because the public has taken everything from them. "It is wrong to raise new issues. Whatever is going on in the NEET case, our government has made strict laws about it. They had the government in their hands for 70 years, why did they not make strict laws? Everything used to be hidden from their government. In our time, strict action is being taken in these cases. Strict laws are being made. An investigation is being done into this entire matter."

"Whoever is caught guilty after an investigation can be called a criminal. Without proving the crime to anyone, no one can be made a criminal. Action is being taken against the mafia in the paper leak case by investigating them. The opposition should be reminded that our government is taking strict action against the copy mafia. have made laws and are implementing them," he added.

Notably, for the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 23 registered a criminal case over the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examination by the NTA and formed special teams to probe the matter.

As per the agency's FIR, certain "isolated incidents" occurred in a few states during the conduct of the NEET (UG) 2024 examination, which was held on May 5, 2024.

The NEET (UG) 2024 Examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on May 5, 2024, at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities abroad, with over 23 lakh candidates appearing for the examination.

An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 marks out of 720, which led to widespread protests in the country.

The Ministry of Education said it has constituted a high-level committee of experts to make recommendations on reforms in the mechanism of the examination process, improvements in data security protocols, and the functioning of the NTA.