West Bengal assembly passes resolution against NEET-UG, proposes separate medical entrance exam

The West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution on NEET-UG after discussion on Wednesday. The ruling Trinamool tabled a resolution on the NEET-UG issue on Tuesday. Calling it the biggest education scam, the ruling Trinamool government proposed that a separate Joint Entrance-Medical, which was earlier conducted by the state government, be started again.State minister for parliamentary affairs Sobhondeb Chattopadhyay, who had moved the resolution, said, “NEET-UG is the biggest scam in the Indian education sector.” He also proposed that a system should be started where the state government, like in the past, can conduct the examination.”

“I support the resolution on NEET moved by our state minister. Prior to this, Tamil Nadu and Kerala assemblies have also discussed the issue. In 2010-11, when the UPA government, dampening the federal structure, tried to conduct NEET, letters were written. Significantly, apart from Bengal, Gujarat also protested on the same issue,” state education minister Bratya Basu said on the floor of the House.

“After 2014, when the NEET examination was transferred to the hands of the National Testing Agency (NTA), students and doctors—the whole education, medical fraternity and political parties—were seen protesting on the issue. On what ground, the grace marks were increased? It was based on the CLAT model. This was the first problem. Thus, so many students stood first in NEET-UG,” Basu said.

“The credibility of NTA is in question now. Why were all students given grace marks? NTA is unable to give details about the grace marks,” Basu further said. “Last year, 50 students received 700 marks but this time, it is 300. Despite the fact, the questions were not easy this time compared to previous years.”

Basu elaborated that after the NEET test, several examinations like UGC NET, NEET-PG and CSIR NET have been cancelled.