NEW DELHI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Intense protests took place in various cities across India on Thursday against the National Testing Agency (NTA) over its failure to conduct examinations (for admissions and recruitment) in a free and fair manner, and the repeated incidents whereby question papers were leaked.
The protests erupted over last night's decision of the federal government to cancel the University Grants Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET), which was held on June 18 to recruit assistant professors at various universities.
The exam was cancelled after it was discovered that the question paper had got "leaked". Subsequently, the matter was referred to the country's leading investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a thorough probe.
More than 900,000 students had attempted the examination.
The UGC-NET row had erupted at a time when a raging controversy was already going on over the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET (UG), which was attempted by over 2.4 million students seeking admissions in medical colleges. But, later it was discovered that the question paper had got "leaked."
Its result was declared on June 4 with 67 students scoring 100 percent marks, or 720 out of 720, and many students scoring 719 and 718 marks.
After doubts were raised over some students' nearly perfect test scores, the NTA admitted that grace marks were given to some students after it was discovered that their time was wasted during distribution of question papers at their respective examination centers.
Later, the NEET (UG) question paper was also leaked in the eastern state of Bihar. Now, the NEET (UG) examination was slated to be re-conducted for 1,563 students, who had got grace marks, on June 23. ■
