||Black and White Digital News ||

||Tejveer Singh June 24 2024 ||

Jammu : Renowned RTI activist S. Balvinder Singh, accompanied by other members, held a press conference today to expose a significant scandal involving the National Testing Agency (NTA). The NTA is already under scrutiny for a paper leak during the NEET exam on May 5, 2024, and further investigations have now revealed additional disturbing findings.

At Kendriya Vidyalaya Miran Sahib, a Sikh girl student was barred from entering the NEET examination centre for wearing a “Kada,” an article of Sikh faith, despite her repeated clarifications that the Kada is explicitly permitted under NEET’s dress code for Sikh candidates, as stated on their official website.

Further investigation has revealed that the NTA awarded a contract to M/S Innovatiview India Pvt. Ltd., located at 37, 2nd Floor, Shanti Vihar, Kakardooma, New Delhi, for tasks such as biometric capture, frisking via HHMD, and installing CCTV cameras for live surveillance at various examination centres, including those in Jammu. Shockingly, at Kendriya Vidyalaya Miran Sahib, four out of five staff members deputed were found to be underqualified, lacking a matriculation certificate, and one was underage, being only 16 years old.

These staff members were deployed for the NEET exam, one of the country’s most critical competitive exams, without adequate training on NEET guidelines, particularly concerning the dress code for different communities. This raises grave concerns about the competence and integrity of the examination process.

Singh has called for a CBI inquiry into the contract awarded to Innovatiview India Pvt. Ltd. for surveillance of examination centres for competitive exams, including NEET. He questioned how the company, which claims on its website to ensure a fair and equitable examination process through advanced security solutions, could sublet such crucial work to a local security agency in Jammu, resulting in the deployment of underqualified, underage, and untrained staff.

Singh urged the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to expand the scope of the CBI inquiry from merely investigating the paper leak to also examining the allotment of contracts for biometric capture and frisking. Instead of enhancing transparency, the NTA is undermining the integrity of the exams by deploying inadequately trained and underage staff, thus jeopardizing the fairness of the process for millions of students.