NEET ‘irregularities’ won’t hinder my students: Pradeep

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Congress MLA from Chikkaballapur and Founder of Parishrama Group Pradeep Eshwar said that he was unfazed by alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2024, adding that it wouldn’t affect the excellence of his students.

Parishrama trains students for NEET, an all India entrance test for medical courses. Pradeep, who is also the Managing Director (MD) of Parishrama, made the comments to News Trail on the sidelines of a felicitation programme held for students from the institute, the best of whom scored as high as 697 marks out of a possible 720.

The NEET exam was conducted on May 4 and the results came out on June 4. One of the alleged irregularities is the emergence of 67 toppers, who all scored a perfect 720 in the exam, which is highly unusual. Moreover, six of the toppers attended the same examination centre.

Pradeep’s contention is that if things stay the same, his students would get into premier medical colleges in the counseling process under the government quota. If there is a re-exam, they’d score higher marks, he argued.

“I agree that irregularities have happened but in north India, especially in two states. Being the head of the coaching centre, I request the Central government and the Supreme Court to intervene and rectify the irregularities that have happened. If irregularities have happened in north India, their rankings will be boosted and we will be impacted. I ask that there be a committee under the honourable Chief Justice of India be set up and be investigated and rectified,” the MLA said.

“We are ready. I am ready as the head of the institution for any decision that the Supreme Court takes. Our Karnataka students have proved themselves. We are ready even if there is a re-exam. We will score more in that case,” he added.

The MLA said that he favoured a transparent and fair investigation into the University Grants Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET) 2024, which also suffered from a paper leak. UGC-NET is conducted to pick research scholars, associate professors and the like.