Government acting on war-footing on NEET-UG controversy, very serious about preventing such incidents: PM Modi

New Delhi [India], July 2 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured students across the country that his government is “very serious” about the NEET issue and is working on a “war footing” to prevent such incidents.

He also emphasized that those who play with the future of the youth will not be spared at all.

“I want to tell every student of the country, every youth of the country that the government is very serious about preventing such incidents and we are taking one step after another to fulfil our responsibilities on a war footing,” PM Modi said while speaking on the NEET issue in Parliament on Tuesday.

While delivering his Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister assured that no one who was involved in the alleged “paper leak” will be spared and several miscreants involved in the case are being arrested.

“Those who play with the future of the youth will not be spared at all. Arrests are being made continuously across the country in the NEET case,” PM Modi said.

Speaking about the notification of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, the Prime Minister said, “The central government has already made a strict law. Necessary steps are being taken to strengthen the entire system of conducting the examination.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party government is under fire from the Opposition for allegations of paper leaks pertaining to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Earlier on Monday, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Monday referred to the medical entrance exam as a “commercial exam” and said that students appearing for NEET alleged that the exam is designed for “rich students and not meritorious students.”

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address to a joint sitting of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi targeted the BJP-led government over the paper leak issue and said that there is fear among everyone in the nation.

“NEET students spend years and years preparing for their exams. Their family supports them financially, and emotionally and the truth is that NEET students today do not believe in the exam because they are convinced that the exam is designed for rich people, not meritorious people. I have met several NEET students. Every single one of them tells me that the exam is designed to create a quota for rich people and to create a passage for them into the system and is designed not to help poor students. The students prepare for months and months,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“There is fear among, youth, farmers, women and the disabled. In fact not in the whole country there is fear among their own (BJP) party. This is truth and that’s why you guys are not shouting now,” he said.

He further demanded a separate one-day discussion on the issue in the Parliament.”We wanted a one day discussion on NEET. It is an important issue. More than two crore students have been affected. Paper leaks have happened on 70 occasions,” he said.

The NEET UG examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities in the country and 14 cities abroad with 23 lakh candidates appearing for the examination.

The results were declared on June 4, which immediately caused a hue and cry with aspirants raising multiple issues. An unprecedented 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 marks out of 720 led to widespread protests in the country.