BJP-led Centre incompetent to conduct NEET, says DMK's Annadurai

"The entire country has now woken up to the evil called NEET. Some of them were sceptical when DMK, from its inception of NEET, opposed it," DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai told ANI.

"They said, why oppose an examination that will bring out the merits of the students? So many people got carried away by it. But DMK, we knew how it would affect social justice and how it would be disadvantageous to the oppressed class of society. The entire country has now understood that the BJP government is incapable and incompetent to conduct an examination in the magnitude of NEET," he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured students across the country that his government is "very serious" about the NEET issue and is working on a "war footing" to prevent such incidents.

He also emphasized that those who play with the future of youth will not be spared at all.

"I want to tell every student of the country and every youth of the country that the government is very serious about preventing such incidents and we are taking one step after another to fulfil our responsibilities on a war footing," PM Modi said while speaking on the NEET issue in Parliament on Tuesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government is under fire from the Opposition for allegations of paper leaks pertaining to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Earlier on Monday, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Monday referred to the medical entrance exam as a "commercial exam" and said that students appearing for NEET alleged that the exam is designed for "rich students and not meritorious students."

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address to a joint sitting of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi targeted the BJP-led government over the paper leak issue and said that there is fear among everyone in the nation.

"NEET students spend years and years preparing for their exams. Their family supports them financially, and emotionally and the truth is that NEET students today do not believe in the exam because they are convinced that the exam is designed for rich people, not meritorious people. I have met several NEET students. Every single one of them tells me that the exam is designed to create a quota for rich people and to create a passage for them into the system and is designed not to help poor students. The students prepare for months and months," Rahul Gandhi said.

This year's NEET UG examination has been marred by allegations of irregularities and paper leaks.

The NEET UG examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities in the country and 14 cities abroad, with 23 lakh candidates appearing for the examination.

The results were declared on June 4, which immediately caused a hue and cry with aspirants raising multiple issues. An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 marks out of 720, leading to widespread protests in the country. (ANI)