Mamata Banerjee urges PM Modi to consider abolishing NEET

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, 24 June, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider abolishing NEET, and reverting back to the system of conducting the exam by states in the wake of the paper leak row.

In a letter to the PM, Banerjee also called for strong action against those involved in the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam.

“I strongly urge upon you to consider and take immediate steps to restore the previous system of conducting this examination by the state governments and abolish the NEET examination. This will help restore normalcy and confidence of the aspirant students in the system,” she said in her two-page letter.

Drawing the PM’s attention to “allegations of paper leak, taking bribes by certain people and the officials involved in the conduct of the examinations, opening of window to accommodate certain students to apply for examinations, grace marks etc”, the chief minister dubbed those as “serious issues which need complete attention and requires a thorough, clean and impartial probe”.

Stressing that such instances jeopardise the career and aspirations of lakhs of students, Banerjee called the developments as those that “not only compromise the quality of medical education in the country, but adversely impact the quality of medical facilities/treatment in the country”.

She maintained that the erstwhile system of states conducting their own entrance tests alongside the Centre was “functioning smoothly and without much problems”.

“This was better attuned to the regional curricula and educational standards. The state government usually spends more than Rs 50 lakh per doctor on education and internship. Therefore, the state should be given freedom to select medical students through joint entrance examination,” the CM argued.

Banerjee highlighted that the decentralised system was changed post 2017 to a unitary and centralised system of examination (NEET) “so as to take complete control of all the admissions in the country without any involvement of the state governments”.

“This is completely unacceptable and violates the true spirits of the federal structure of the country,” she alleged.

Banerjee added that the present system has led to “massive corruption”, “benefiting the rich and causing suffering to the poor and meritorious”.