DMK’s anti-NEET protest on June 24
Students’ wing of the party wants Centre to thoroughly probe irregularities in NEET this year
CHENNAI: The ruling DMK has announced a massive protest condemning the irregularities in the conduct of NEET this year and seeking immediate assent of the President for the Bill adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly seeking exemption for the state from NEET.
Referring to the irregularities in NEET-UG exam conducted in May last for medical admission this year, DMK students’ wing secretary and Kancheepuram MLA CVMP Ezhilarasan on Wednesday announced that the students’ wing of the DMK would hold a massive protest at 9 am on June 24, Monday near Valluvarkottam urging the Centre to thoroughly probe the irregularities in NEET this year. It will also condemn the BJP for being adamant on conducting the national test for medical admission unmindful of the student deaths.
Citing complaints received against rampant irregularities in NEET’s conduct across the country on May 5 this year, Ezhilarasan said that it was not new to receive complaints of question paper leak in NEET. Pointing out that four persons were arrested for NEET irregularities in 2019 and the number rose to five and 15 in 2020 and 2021, the DMK students’ wing secretary said that only eight persons have secured 720/720 in the last eight years, but this year about 67 students have secured full marks and six of them were from the same center at Faridabad in Haryana.
Arguing that even students who failed Class 12 have secured over 700 marks in NEET this year, Ezhilarasan said that the fallacy of NEET has been exposed by so many students securing 720/720, which is possibly only if they had access to the question papers beforehand on payment of money or engaged proxies to take tests. Noting that about 50 of the 67 students who secured full marks were among the 1,563 students for whom the National Testing Agency had agreed to award grace marks over a dispute in syllabus of the test, the DMK students’ wing secretary said that one of the deputy supervisors of the NEET examination centre at Godhra in Gujarat had details of 16 students who agreed to pay hefty sums after negotiations running up to Rs 10 crore to leave questions unanswered in the answers to be filled later.
Remarking that the opposition to NEET has been raised across the country owing to the widespread irregularities, the DMK said that Chief Minister MK Stalin and Tamil Nadu have been opposing NEET on the premise that the very test was a scam.