The NEET-PG entrance examination, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, June 23, has been postponed, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.
“Taking into consideration, the recent incidents of allegations regarding the integrity of certain competitive examinations, Ministry of Health has decided to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG Entrance Examination, conducted by National Board of Examination for medical students,” the ministry statement read.
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“It has accordingly been decided, as a precautionary measure to postpone the NEET-PG Entrance Examination, scheduled to be held tomorrow i.e. 23rd June, 2024. Fresh date of this examination will be notified at the earliest,” the ministry added.
“Ministry of Health sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to the students. This decision has been taken in the best interests of the students and to maintain the sanctity of examination process,” the health ministry said.
The NEET-PG entrance exam is the third such competitive test to be cancelled or deferred in the past three days. On Thursday, the education ministry announced cancellation of the UGC-NET examination, which is held to determine the eligibility of assistant professors, junior research fellowship and admission to PhD courses in Indian universities and colleges.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the UGC-NET paper was leaked on the darknet and hence the paper has to be cancelled.
On Friday, the National Testing Agency deferred the CSIR UGC-NET examination due to ‘unavoidable circumstances’ and ‘logistical issues’. “There was no leak in CSIR-UGC NET, it was postponed because of logistic issues. There is also a retest of 1,563 NEET candidates tomorrow. For smooth conduct of the exam everywhere, the decision was taken,” Pradhan said on Saturday.
NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates taking part in it. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.
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