NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday slammed the National Testing Agency (NTA) for making a profit of Rs 448 crore over the past six years by conducting examinations and said that the future of millions of Indian youths has been reduced to a “mere revenue-raising exercise” by the government.In a post on micro-blogging site X, Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, expressed his concerns, highlighting the NEET controversy. He pointed out that the NTA, which operates under the education ministry, primarily outsources its functions to private vendors, many of whom have questionable backgrounds.Furthermore, he noted that the NTA is headed by an individual previously in charge of the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, which has been involved in several major scandals.Ramesh, who also serves as a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, shared that the Union Minister of State for Education had disclosed that the NTA had collected around Rs 3,512.98 crore and spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on conducting examinations, resulting in a profit of Rs 448 crore over six years.Criticising the BJP government, Ramesh argued that despite this profit, the funds have not been utilised to enhance the NTA’s own testing capabilities or to improve the regulation and monitoring of its vendors. He rued that the future of millions of Indian youths has become a revenue-generating venture for the government.Along with his post, Ramesh included a statement from Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar, presented in the Rajya Sabha on July 31 in response to a query about the NTA.“NTA was established in 2018 and has since conducted over 240 examinations involving more than 5.4 crore candidates. It is self-sustaining through the examination fees collected,” Majumdar stated.The minister also emphasised the various operational and security measures taken to ensure the smooth and fair conduct of competitive examinations. These measures include engaging specialised agencies for tasks such as biometric capturing, frisking, CCTV surveillance, and AI analytics to detect potential impersonation and secure exam delivery.NEET-UG 2024 data available on UMANG and DigiLocker platformsThe National Testing Agency (NTA) will soon upload NEET-UG 2024 candidate data onto the UMANG and DigiLocker platforms of the Government of India. This decision follows numerous complaints received by NTA regarding NEET OMR answer sheets. Qualified candidates can log in to these platforms to access and download their NEET documents. Registrants for NEET-UG 2024 can now view their confirmation page, NTA NEET scorecard, and scanned OMR answer sheet images through UMANG and DigiLocker.“Candidates are encouraged to use these platforms for direct access to their documents, addressing their grievances effectively,” NTA said. For assistance with downloading the NEET-UG 2024 admit card, candidates can contact 011-40759000/011-69227700 or email neet@nta.ac.in.
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