NTA briefs parliament panel amid fresh political storm
A parliamentary standing committee meeting convened to examine the merits of pen-and-paper versus computer-based testing turned into a political and institutional flashpoint on Monday. The National Testing Agency (NTA) defended its June 21 NEET-UG retest plan, while Congress chair Digvijaya Singh warned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal accountability was now on the line. Meanwhile, representatives of a doctors’ body that has approached the Supreme Court over the alleged NEET paper leak were prevented from deposing before the panel after objections from ruling party members. The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports — chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh — brought together top NTA officials including Director General Abhishek Singh, Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, and Health and Family Welfare Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava. The agenda was a comparative discussion on pen-and-paper and computer-based testing systems. NTA: June 21 retest in pen-and-paper mode, CBT from 2027 NTA officials told the committee that the agency’s entire focus at present was on conducting the NEET-UG re-examination on June 21 in …
