Ahead of the much awaited re-test for the NEET-UG exam that was cancelled last month, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday announced a nationwide mock drill to ensure that it would be conducted smoothly.
The NTA also issued a statement, saying that it was fully prepared for the June 21 exam, with over two lakh district administrations, police forces, and escort teams tasked with securely transporting the question papers and other confidential material.
Specifically, 674 city coordinators have also been appointed to oversee city-level operations, while 6,669 observers have been placed in charge of independent oversight at examination centres, as per a PTI report.
The re-exam will be conducted from 2 PM to 5:15 PM in pen-and-paper mode across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad for over 22.79 lakh candidates.
The NTA has also clarified that those with disabilities (PwD/PwBD) eligible for compensatory time would be allowed to write the examination till 6:20 PM.
It also warned candidates to stay away from fake messages and fraudulent communications related to the examination, adding that official messages would be sent only from the sender ID 'NICPEP', and that emails will come from 'no-reply.neet.nta@nic.in'.
The NTA also pointed out that it would never ask for payments, share question papers, answer keys or send admit cards through unofficial links.
Notably, many of the candidates this time had written the exam on May 3, only to find the result cancelled due to the paper leak row.
This comes on the back of the Centre's temporary ban on Telegram, in order to prevent the spread of false information—and possibly the leak of question papers.
The Delhi High Court upholding the move to block the platform in India till June 22 also comes after several netizens alleged that the question papers had been leaked online ahead of the re-test, which sparked backlash against the NTA—that is already under fire for the student suicides that followed the cancellation of the first test.
"(Claims of question paper leaks) are fake ... question papers are safe," NTA director general Abhishek Singh told ANI.
