UGC-NET 2024 Exam Cancelled: The Opposition on Wednesday hit out at the Centre after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the cancellation of the UGC-NET June 2024 Examination, saying the “integrity of the examination may have been compromised”. The decision, backed by the Ministry of Education came after the University Grants Commission (UGC) received alarming inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), due to fear of irregularities.
Scores of opposition leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and others attacked the government over alleged irregularities and dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government as a ‘paper leak government’.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Congress chief Kharge hit out at PM Modi and asked when will he discuss the NEET exams. Kharge called the cancellation of UGC-NET exams a ‘victory of the spirit of millions of students.’ “This is the defeat of the arrogance of the Modi government due to which they made a despicable attempt to trample the future of our youth,” he added.
"Modi ji, take responsibility to stop your government's rigging and paper leak in NEET exam too," Kharge further said.
Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sharply reacted to the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam and said that the BJP government's “corruption and laxity” is harmful to the youth.
"After the news of scam in the NEET exam, now the NET exam held on 18th June has also been cancelled due to the fear of irregularities. Will accountability be fixed now? Will the Education Minister take responsibility for this laxity?" Priyanka Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.
Taking to X, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram wrote, “Cancel NEET too! The examination is devoid of integrity.”
Reacting to the development, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the ‘paper mafia is rigging every exam’ under BJP’s rule. “And now after the news of irregularities, the UGC-NET exam has also been cancelled. Under the BJP rule, the paper mafia is rigging every exam, one after the other. This could also be someone's big conspiracy against the country,” he wrote on X in Hindi.
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Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi claimed that the NTA's repeated and complete failure to conduct national tests fairly demonstrates its incompetence.
“This is an education emergency and also lets down lakhs of students who diligently prepare for these entrance exams. , not to mention the mental pressure they go through. Cancelling is not the solution, accountability from government and NTA is. This absolute disregard to young students and their careers is unfortunate,” Chaturvedi wrote on X.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said, "Not a single examination is being conducted without rigging and paper leak under the incompetent BJP government. This government is causing great harm to the future of the country. Crores of students of the country are sinking into the darkness of despair every day."
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Amid nationwide outrage over the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET, the Union Education Ministry ordered the cancellation of the UGC-NET and handed over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for investigation.
The NEET fiasco came to light after the NTA faced scrutiny over allegations of paper leaks and questionable grace marks. The results were questioned as an unprecedented 67 students have attained a perfect score of 720. However, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan emphasised that there is no evidence of paper leaks and claims of corruption in NTA are unfounded. The NTA reportedly conducted the medical entrance examination on May 5 across 4,750 centres for approximately 24 lakh students.