A day ahead of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) exam, mock drills are being conducted across exam centres on Saturday.
The mock drills are expected to help test preparedness and security at these centres in terms of the functionality of mobile signal jammers, biometric authentication systems, and availability of manpower for frisking, according to sources.
The exam will be conducted across 5,453 centres in around 500 cities. Around 22.7 lakh candidates have registered for it, down from 24 lakh last year. The exam is being conducted in around 700 more centres this year, compared to the 4,750 centres that were set up last year.
Efforts have been made to ensure that most exam centres this year are in government or government-aided schools, and higher education institutions.
“There will be three layers of monitoring on the exam day – at the district, state, and Centre levels,” a Ministry of Education source said.
Authorities in the states have been directed to ensure the availability of drinking water, uninterrupted electricity supply, and first aid/ambulance services for emergencies.
In the wake of the paper leak last year, the Centre constituted a high-level panel headed by former Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan to recommend measures to conduct public exams in a “transparent, smooth, and fair way.” The committee had recommended conducting public exams along the lines of elections, through coordination committees at the state and district levels.
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With the panel having suggested more involvement of authorities at the state and district levels while conducting such examinations, the preparation for and conduct of the NEET-UG exam this year involve state and district administrations.
District-level coordination committees headed by the district magistrate and including a senior police officer have been constituted to ensure that security protocol is adhered to and arrangements are in place. These committees were involved in vetting and choosing examination centres. A senior official in the district administration in South East Delhi said that the administration is involved in the safe transport of the question papers to the centres under police escort. Lighting arrangements, ventilation, drinking water, toilets, functional CCTV cameras in classrooms, proper frisking, and security of the centre are all being checked for, the official said.
This is also the first NEET-UG exam to take place after the Centre notified rules in June last year under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The rules lay down procedures for reporting unfair means, while the Act specifies penalties, including imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of not less than Rs 1 crore in the case of organised crime (unfair means to promote a shared interest for wrongful gain in a public exam).
Sources said that candidates found indulging in unfair means before, during or after the exam will face penalties under the Act, and will also be debarred from appearing in exams conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for up to three years, based on the “severity” of their unlawful action.
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The CBI investigation into last year’s NEET-UG paper leak found that the question paper was leaked from a centre in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, solved and sent to candidates, including some in Patna, Bihar.
The NEET-UG exam is being watched closely this year, with the NDA government having faced severe backlash over the conduct of public exams soon after it came to power for the third time last year. NEET-UG was not the only public exam that ran into trouble last year, but also UGC-NET, which was cancelled a day after it was held in June on the grounds that the paper may have been leaked on the darknet. The CSIR-UGC NET and NEET-PG, scheduled to be held in June last year, were postponed in the wake of the NEET-UG fiasco.
With students calling for the exam to be cancelled last year (the Supreme Court turned down the plea to cancel it), the Opposition used the conduct of public examinations as ammunition to attack the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Officials in the Ministry of Education said that marathon meetings have been held with district administrations to ensure that the examination is conducted smoothly.
