Parliamentary panel to review NEET conduct, functioning of health regulatory bodies

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare will review the conduct of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and assess the functioning of regulatory bodies under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at its meeting on July 16.

Chaired by Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav, the panel is scheduled to examine the "organisational structure, mandate and functional proficiency of regulatory institutions" under the ministry, along with the "conduct of NEET examinations under the NMC Act, 2019."

A day before the NEET discussion, on July 15, the committee will meet to deliberate on the affordability and accessibility of healthcare services in both the public and private sectors.

The Health and Family Welfare panel is the third parliamentary committee to examine issues related to NEET. The examination has already been reviewed by the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports and the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances.

Earlier, the two panels summoned senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Education, the National Testing Agency (NTA), the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the alleged NEET paper leak.

Officials who appeared before the committees included Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh, and the NMC chairperson.

The discussions centered on strengthening the NTA's examination processes and preventing future paper leaks.

The NEET-UG examination, originally conducted on May 3, was canceled after allegations of a paper leak and was held again on June 21.

Earlier this month, the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, chaired by Congress MP Mukul Wasnik, reviewed the conduct of the NEET-UG re-examination and discussed structural reforms required to strengthen the NTA.

During the meeting held on July 1, members of the panel also recommended granting statutory status to the NTA, arguing that the testing agency requires greater legal authority and institutional independence to conduct large-scale examinations such as NEET-UG.

The committee had also sought clarification from the NTA on its definition of a "paper leak" and whether similar incidents had occurred in examinations conducted since 2018.

NTA officials maintained that there had been no leak from the agency's system and said that only questions from a guess paper had circulated.