Why was NEET PG cancelled?
Talking about why the exam was cancelled 12 hours before it was about to start on June 23, Sheth clarified that “there were no reports of a paper leak or any other kind of such issue.” The exam, as per the NBE, was cancelled as the “Ministry wanted to check the robustness of the exam process, and we wanted to be sure that there is no vulnerability in this process.”
Stating that several exams of the National Testing Agency (NTA) were already cancelled, the NBE chief added that the situation was “overly sensitive” this time.
“A leak in the NEET PG exam is not possible, as our exam is conducted in a computer-based test (CBT) format, which means that everything is done online and the question paper is not published anywhere. Usually, we generate the question paper almost an hour before the exam, so there is no possibility of a paper leak.
“However, there are some miscreants in our society who take advantage of the vulnerability of students in such tense situations and tell students that they can help them pass the exam for a fixed amount of money. In such cases, they take half payment before the exam and then if the student passes, they claim it is because of them. If the student does not clear the exam, these miscreants run away with their half payment.
“Considering how sensitive the situation already was this year, we wanted to avoid such a situation where fraudulent agents could take advantage of students, and that’s why this step was taken,” he explained.