00:05Neat has now been cancelled more than once and what was once a scandal has become a pattern.
00:1122.7 lakh students who sat this exam are paying a price once again.
00:17Two weeks ago NTA chief Abhishek Singh declared a zero error zero tolerance policy.
00:22He is joining me live.
00:23Sir, this almost seems to be like a pattern.
00:28The cancellation cites central agency inputs because the source certainly determines the scale.
00:35Was it the IB, the CBI or the state police, Mr. Singh?
00:40See, like as we had mentioned before the examination was held on 3rd of May,
00:46that this will be a zero tolerant examination, a zero error examination.
00:50And anybody who wants to, who thwarts the efforts of the 22 lakh students will be met with the strong
00:58arm of the law.
00:59We were vigilant before the conduct of the examination, on the day of the examination and also after the examination.
01:05Till the conduct of the examination, every complaint that was received was verified.
01:11We blocked 120 telegram channels.
01:14We made an appeal to all the students that in case anybody tries to sell any question papers or anything
01:22like that, please do report.
01:23We got a report on 7th of May, four days after the conduct of the examination from a whistleblower saying
01:30that some messages were circulated on WhatsApp,
01:33which had some content, which were part of the examination, even though it was received after four days, after 96
01:40hours, we verified that complaint on two grounds.
01:44One, whether any, even a single question from that PDF was matching with what was asked in the examination.
01:50And number two, was this PDF in circulation before the examination?
01:55When part of it was found to be true, we realized that if we continue with the present examination that
02:03was conducted, it will be not be fair for the 22 lakh students who had worked in day in and
02:09day out for this examination.
02:11But Abhishekji, there is a huge disappointment among the students.
02:15They feel that this entire testing agency lacks credibility and transparency.
02:21How will you assure the students that this scandal will not repeat?
02:27It almost seems like a pattern now, sir.
02:31We understand the anguish and the anger of the students and the parents.
02:36I know a lot of effort goes into this preparing for this examination, writing this examination.
02:42But had we not acted, had we allowed these campsites to be able to do what they tried to do,
02:50it would have further been something which would have not been fair for the large majority of students.
02:56So even though it's a tough decision on part of parents, on part of students, on part of NTA to
03:01conduct this examination,
03:02again, we take complete responsibility of that.
03:06We have said that we will not be charging any more fees.
03:09We are refunding the fees that we had charged earlier.
03:11We are committed to conduct a zero error examination.
03:14I know that till we actually do it, we will not be able to prove what we are saying.
03:19Yes, and sir, you know, Rajasthan SOG actually found a handwritten question bank
03:24where 120 questions matched the actual NEET paper, 90 in biology, 13 chemistry.
03:31How did a handwritten paper make it out of a system that claimed real-time tracking
03:37and barcode surveillance of every question packet?
03:41See, I will not go into the merits, whether 120 matched or 35 matched or 45 matched.
03:47The question is that even if one question was compromised,
03:51it is something that's impacting the efforts of the 22 lakh students.
03:54So the people who are doing these malpractices, they are becoming smarter.
04:01They are trying to do new things.
04:02They are trying to do different ways for violating the integrity of the entire process.
04:08But we want to tell them that we are vigilant and we will not allow anyone,
04:13anything like that to happen.
04:15Anything like that, their efforts will not succeed.
04:17So if anybody is trying to fool people, if anybody is trying to cheat people
04:21by saying that they will get question papers and they can pay for that,
04:25they should not fall for that.
04:27Okay.
04:27Because that is not going to succeed.
04:28Sir, 22.79 lakh students sat this exam.
04:32Before anything else, how many centers, how many states, how many students were actually
04:36exposed to this leaked paper?
04:38The reason why I am asking you is this, because in 2024, the NTA had told the Supreme Court
04:44that it was a localized breach.
04:47This time, it seems to be far bigger.
04:51See, we had assured all our stakeholders, especially students and parents, that this
04:59will be a zero error examination.
05:01We will have zero tolerance to any malpractice.
05:04So the question is not that whether it was confined to one center or one district or one
05:09state or more states.
05:11The question is that if the integrity of the process is violated, it's violated.
05:15It's up to the CBI to conduct the complete inquiry and come out with the extent of the
05:20reach.
05:21I am not prejudging the inquiry.
05:23I am not sitting into judgment with regard to whether it was localized or not.
05:27We have taken this call as a violation of our principle, our assurance of a zero error
05:32examination.
05:33And we will conduct the examination without delay, without impacting the academic schedules,
05:38without impacting the academic future of the students with the minimal possible time.
05:43And we will ensure that nothing of this kind reoccurs.
05:47We will ensure that all those who are guilty for whatever has happened are caught, are punished,
05:52are sent to jail.
05:53So that is the commitment.
05:54In 2024, a Supreme Court affidavit, Mr. Singh cited barcode tracking and CCTV surveillance
06:01at strong rooms as foolproof.
06:04Did those systems run in 2026?
06:07And if they did, at exactly which point in the change, in the chain, I would say in the
06:13chain, did the paper get out?
06:18I can only tell you that the exact point where whatever happened will be known once the CBI
06:26inquiry is completed.
06:27I will not like to prejudge the inquiry, but I can assure you that the examination on 3rd
06:33of May was conducted in a very smooth manner.
06:37We had complete footage of all the CCTVs from all the strong rooms where the papers were there.
06:43We had complete monitoring of all the 5, 4, 3, 2 centers in India, the 14 centers outside
06:50India.
06:50We had more than 150,000 CCTVs that we are monitoring.
06:55So I am quite assured that on the date of the examination and post the examination, bringing
07:01the OMR sheets back, all of it was conducted in a smooth manner.
07:05But there was something that happened that we got on 7th of May and we verified that allegation
07:11about the WhatsApp message circulating, which was not the question paper, which was a handwritten
07:15note.
07:16But part of that handwritten note did match with some of the question papers which were there.
07:20And that was reason enough for us to come to the conclusion that the present state of
07:25examination is not fair for the large majority of the students.
07:28And that's why we had to take this unfortunate but big decision of cancelling this examination
07:34and ordering a re-examination.
07:35Is this unavoidable?
07:36Would you say that cancellation was the only way out?
07:43See, in order to be fair to the large majority of the students, there was no option but to
07:49cancel and re-conduct the examination because anything short of that would mean that those
07:55who try to thwart the system, those who try to scam the students, those who try to beat
08:01the system would have succeeded.
08:03This is a message to all those scamsters and criminals that the strong arm of the law will
08:09catch you, the CBI will arrest you, will send you to the jail and dare you not repeat
08:14anything in the next NEET examination or any other examination that NTA conducts.
08:19Are there some localised groups involved in this or are you also saying that some people
08:26within your system could be responsible?
08:30I will not prejudge the inquiry that the CBI will be doing.
08:33CBI has a free mandate with regard to looking into all aspects with regard to whosoever is
08:39guilty and to catch them and punish them.
08:41So, I will await the CBI's complete inquiry and TA will share all the necessary details with
08:46them for a successful inquiry.
08:48Just a couple of questions to you Mr. Singh, I know you are in the middle of too many meetings,
08:52but you were certainly hoping for a very, very, you know, digital lockdown, end to end
08:59encryption, decentralised printing, all those were part of the plan, that was the recommendation
09:04of the committee.
09:06What happened to all those recommendations?
09:08We will look into it.
09:09Once we review, the recommendations are there, the efforts were made, but yes, we will look
09:15into it, what went wrong.
09:17CBI will look into it and we will ensure that we are able to correct what we need to.
09:22Just one question because we want to understand the scale of this breach.
09:26How many states and how many students were actually exposed?
09:31Again, I will let the CBI do the complete inquiry.
09:34We are not fully equipped to do such forensics and to do such checks.
09:39It requires an investigative agency which looks into all the evidence, all the trails and look
09:46into the digital footprints, look into the forensics and come to a fair conclusion.
09:50So, my mandate was only that even if an iota of violation has happened, it has violated the
09:58integrity of the examination.
09:59And that's why we took the call of cancelling it and doing a re-examination.
10:02With regard to the actual extent, with regard to who all are responsible, who are involved,
10:07that will come out with the CBI inquiry.
10:10Sir, you know, given how disappointed the students are and their parents are, they are raising
10:16questions on whether this body which you had is actually now in the right position to conduct
10:22scamтАж to conduct, you know, exams at this scale.
10:26Huge sense of disappointment, sir.
10:29Huge sense of disappointment.
10:31I share the anguish, I share the anger that parents have, students have.
10:35I am a parent myself.
10:36I have gone through children who have written competitive examinations.
10:39I understand the effort that it takes, the pain that it takes in preparing for these examinations,
10:45writing these examinations.
10:46And when something like this happens, it's very, very disappointing.
10:49So, I fully share that anguish.
10:52I take responsibility.
10:54That is why NTA can only commit that we will not allow anyone to violate the integrity of
11:00the examination.
11:01We will take, we will have the examination in a foolproof manner.
11:06We are warning all those who are trying to beat us that if they do this, we will not
11:11let that happen.
11:12We are assuring the students that they don't need to repay for the examination.
11:16Even the cost that they paid for the first round, we are refunding it.
11:20And NTA is taking the responsibility.
11:21We are putting it on our books.
11:23And we are going to ensure that we set up systems and processes that none of it repeats.
11:30So, are you then saying that this is the last time it has happened and that you will ensure
11:34a system which what you promised when you took charge, Mr. Singh, 40 days ago of creating
11:41a system which is foolproof?
11:44We will, we are committed to doing that.
11:46But if I say anything at this stage, at this moment, it will all sound very hollow.
11:52We will have to prove it and walk the talk and then only claim for anything that we are going
11:57to do.
11:58So, I know that we have to do it.
12:00My team knows that they have to do it.
12:03More than 200,000 people were involved in the conduct of this examination.
12:07It is very disappointing for the whole team, for all of us.
12:11But we do take responsibility and we do assure all concerned that we will address all the
12:18major challenges and address the gaps that are there.
12:21Alright, Abhishek Singh, thank you for your time.
12:25Zero error and zero tolerance.
12:26That's what he had declared when he took charge as the DG of NTA.
12:30Now he is saying that he is taking full responsibility.
12:33Of course, it's a subject of investigation.
12:35A detailed CBI probe has been ordered and then only we will know where and how big is the breach.
12:43That's all from me.
12:44Over to the studio for more news and updates.
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