Kolkata:
Bengal has joined the ranks of states who want the all-India Medical entrance exam NEET, out. Today it became the second state after Tamil Nadu to pass a resolution against the exam and maintained that it wants to revert to the earlier system.
State education Minister Bratya Basu said they were never in favour of having an all-India exam but were persuaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
“When the exams were handed over to the Centre in brazen step of dismantling the federal structure, there were protests from our side,” Mr Basu said.
“The then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi had said that NEET exams should not be handled by the Centre,” he added.
“Those who are bringing this resolution are neck deep in corruption in the education system. Trinamool and transparency have no connection at all,” countered state BJP’s Sankar Ghosh.
The state’s move came a day after the Supreme Court said there would be no re-test for NEET, since it was not conclusively proved that the sanctity of the exam has been breached.
The students who got question number 29 of the Physics paper wrong, will lose marks.
There being two possible answers to the question, the ones who gave the second answer were also given marks. But under the entrance exam rules, a wrong answer leads to deduction of marks.
Following a petition by a student, the Supreme Court has also ruled that only one correct answer from a set of four answers will be valid. Following the court’s decision, four lakh students will lose marks.
Last month, the Tamil Nadu assembly unanimously passed a resolution, urging the Centre to scrap NEET and allow state governments to undertake medical admissions based on Class 12 marks, as was done before NEET’s implementation.