New Delhi: In wake of the row over at least one girl aspirant appearing for NEET at a centre in Kerala allegedly being asked to remove innerwear, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has set up a fact-finding committee to ascertain the facts, and further action will be taken based on its report, an official statement said on Tuesday.
The incident was reported from the Marthoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur, near Thiruvanathapuram, in the exam held on Sunday.
In view of the above allegation, the Ministry of Education has asked the NTA to ascertain all the facts about the incident on the spot from stakeholders present at the centre at that time.
In the statement, the Ministry said that it has been brought to its notice, through various media reports, that an incident allegedly happened in one of the exam centres in Kerala’s Kollam district. The NTA has already issued a clarification in this regard.
It said Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V. Muraleedharan and other public representatives from Kerala have met Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday, and Kerala’s Higher Education and Social Justice Minister, Dr. R. Bindu, has also written a letter to him.
The officials involved in the conduct of the NEET exam said that, on the receipt of the report, immediate comments of the Centre Superintendent and the Independent Observer as well as the City Coordinator, Kollam district were obtained. All three of them have inter alia, stated that they did not find any such incident happening in the centre. The candidate did take the examination.
According to the NTA, there was no representation or complaint to any one during immediately after the examination, and nor had it received any email complaint in this regard. As far as NTA’s Dress Code for NEET is concerned, it does not permit any such activity as alleged by the parent of the candidate, an NTA official added.
The NTA said that the code provides for ensuring the sanctity and fairness of conducting the examination, while observing sensitivity towards the gender, religious, cultural, and regional sensitivities involved in frisking, and biometric checking of candidates.
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