NEW DELHI: Between NEET-NET paper leaks controversy that has affected tens of thousands of students, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider giving states “freedom to select medical students through the common entrance test”.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Banerjee said that “allegations of paper leak, bribery by certain persons and the officials involved in the conduct of the examinations” are some serious issues that require “a thorough, clean and impartial investigation.”
He added that such leaks “jeopardize the careers and aspirations of thousands and thousands of students who are eager to get into them medical courses“.
The CM said that such incidents of leaks “not only compromise the quality of medical education in the country but adversely affect the quality of medical facilities/treatments in the country”.
Banerjee then went on to say that before 2017, States were allowed to conduct their own entrance exams and the Center also used to conduct its own exams for admission to medical courses.
“This system worked smoothly and without many problems. This was better adapted to regional curricula and educational standards. The state government typically spends over Rs 50 lakh per doctor on training and internship. Therefore, freedom should be given to the state to select medical students through Common Entrance Examination,” he said.
The CM said that the decentralized system was later converted into a single and centralized examination system (NEET) to undertake “absolute control of all the country’s entrants to medical courses without any interference of the State Governments. This is completely unacceptable and violates the true spirit of the country’s federal structure.”
“The present system has led to massive corruption that benefits only the rich who can afford to pay, while deserving students belonging to the poor and middle class suffer and are the biggest victims,” he added.
The CM urged PM Modi to take immediate steps to “restore the previous system of conducting this exam by the state governments and scrap the NEET exam…this will help restore normalcy and confidence of the aspirant students in the system”.
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