New Delhi: The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Undergraduate courses (NEET-UG) was successfully conducted across India on Sunday under heightened security and monitoring, with no major disruptions reported, officials confirmed.
The massive medical entrance exam took place at over 5,400 centres nationwide, with more than 22.7 lakh candidates registered to appear. Official attendance data is expected to be released soon.
In preparation, mock drills were conducted at all exam centres on Saturday to ensure operational readiness.
These drills tested systems such as mobile signal jammers, biometric authentication, frisking procedures, and overall manpower coordination.
Most test centres were based in government-run or government-aided institutions.
Despite the scale of the operation, no significant untoward incidents were recorded.
However, a minor controversy arose in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, where members of the Brahmin community staged a protest after some students were allegedly asked to remove their sacred threads (‘janivara’) before entering the exam hall.
In a few states, authorities acted swiftly against attempts at malpractice.
In Rajasthan, the Special Operations Group detained three individuals accused of trying to scam a candidate out of Rs. 40 lakh by promising access to the question paper.
Meanwhile, four members of an interstate racket were arrested in Bhubaneswar for allegedly collecting money from aspirants in exchange for fake admission promises.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), working under the Union Ministry of Education, implemented three layers of monitoring — at the district, state, and national levels — to safeguard the exam’s integrity.
Measures included transporting question papers under police escort, heavy surveillance around coaching centres, and stringent frisking protocols at examination venues.
The precautionary efforts followed the controversy over alleged paper leaks and irregularities in last year’s NEET-UG, which had drawn criticism and scrutiny from both the public and government.
In a pre-emptive crackdown on misinformation, the NTA also identified and flagged over 100 Telegram channels and 16 Instagram accounts for spreading false claims about leaked NEET-UG papers.
The agency asked both platforms to shut down these channels immediately to prevent panic and misinformation among candidates.
Over 1,500 paper leak claims were submitted to the NTA’s grievance portal.
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To ensure a secure exam environment, the Education Ministry held coordination meetings with district magistrates and senior police officials from across states and union territories.
Following last year’s irregularities in NEET-UG and other national exams, the government has established a dedicated panel to oversee transparent and fair conduct by the NTA.
This comes after the UGC-NET exam was cancelled due to compromised integrity and two other exams — CSIR-UGC NET and NEET-PG — were called off as precautionary measures.
