Bandh against paper leaks peaceful

Hyderabad: The education bandh called by student and youth organisations to protest against the leakage of question papers of national exams such as NEET and NET went off smoothly on Thursday. The demonstrators demanded the immediate resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the cancellation of NEET, and the transfer of examination conducting authority to state governments. They called for a Supreme Court-led investigation into the question paper leaks, rather than a CBI inquiry.

Most educational institutions were shut during the day. A rally, led by NSUI, SFI, AISF, PDSU, DYFI, AIYF, and PYL activists, marched from Kacheguda to Narayanguda flyover.

NSUI state president and MLC Balmoor Venkat, R.L. Murthy, T. Nagaraju (SFI), Putta Laxman (AISF), Mahesh (PDSU), S. Nageshwar Rao, P. Ramakrishna (PDSU), Kota Ramesh, Anaganti Venkatesh (DYFI), Valiullah Khadri, Dharmendra (AIYF), and K.S. Pradeep (PYL) addressed the gathering on the plight of students who faced question paper leaks.

They condemned the Modi government's silence on the issue and criticised the move to involve CBI, calling it a diversionary tactic. They cited the Bihar police's confirmation of NEET paper leaks, which the Centre denied, as a disgrace.

The protesters argued that the cancellation of NET and NEET had severely impacted candidates financially. They called for compensation for these candidates and demanded a thorough investigation into the 17 types of exams conducted by the National Testing Agency, alleging that exam papers were being sold for lakhs.