Aadhaar likely to be must for NEET
Move To Check Impersonation, Says NTA Chief
Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com
Chennai:06.10.2019
Bombarded with complaints of impersonation and fraud in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Tests in 2019, the National Testing Agency has sought permission from the Centre to use Aadhaar data for its 2020 exam, its director general Vineet Joshi said. If the Centre agrees, fingerprints and iris scans of students taken at different stages – application, examination, counselling and admission -- will be verified with details stored in the national registry.
Students will be asked to submit their Aadhaar number and their biometric data such as fingerprints and iris scans will be used for verification with data in the unique identity card, he told The Times of India. “At present, we collect students’ fingerprints twice in the examination hall, once before the start of the exam and another at the end. But these are not digital records. They are taken on paper,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu government has now written to the NTA asking for these documents so it can verify the veracity of every medical student. “We will be sharing the data with the state and help them carry out a fair investigation,” he said. The NTA did not expect such malpractices to happen this year. “We were careful about what they should bring into exam hall because we did not want them to copy. We will make rules stringent the next year, but we will also ensure it’s not difficult for the students,” he said.
Nevertheless, the NTA will not advice or suggest to other states to match fingerprints with first year MBBS students in their state because the agency’s job ends with conducting examination and declaring results. “Tamil Nadu busted the scam only because admission agency and colleges checked the records,” he said. MCI board of governors chairman V K Paul told TOI last week that it will wait for the law enforcing agency and investigating agency to carry out complete investigation.
In the last one month, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested at least four students who used different methods to cheat the system to get into medical colleges. Inquiries by the Directorate of Medical Education and police revealed that while K V Udit Surya admitted to Theni Government Medical College never took NEET, Mohammed Irfan from Dharmapuri Government Medical College had changed his scores from 207 to
407. Two students, Praveen S and Raghul Davis, wrote the NEET from Tamil Nadu while their imposters took the test in their name from centres in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. As their imposters scored better than them, they used their imposters score cards to join deemed universities – SRM Medical College and Hospital and Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital.
While admission to government colleges were done by the state selection committee attached to the Directorate of Medical Education in Tamil Nadu, the admission to the deemed universities was through centralised online counselling by the medical counselling committee, Directorate General of Health Services. As per Supreme Court directions, all selection committees use merit in NEET criteria for admissions. Neither the NTA nor the selection committees was aware of the scam until a whistleblower in Tamil Nadu blew the lid off by sending details of one first-year medical student to the Theni Government Medical College.
Inquiries conducted by the CBCID police with students and parents led to arrest of one agent. The police are still tracking a couple of more agents in cities including Bangalore. “This seems to be a well-oiled network functioningfor some time now across the country. Agents identify imposters who can pose as students and write NEET. Parents have paid up to ₹20 lakh for this,” said a senior investigating officer.
If the Centre agrees, fingerprints and iris scans of students taken at different stages will be verified with details stored in the national registry
VINEET JOSHI
NTA director general
Move To Check Impersonation, Says NTA Chief
Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com
Chennai:06.10.2019
Bombarded with complaints of impersonation and fraud in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Tests in 2019, the National Testing Agency has sought permission from the Centre to use Aadhaar data for its 2020 exam, its director general Vineet Joshi said. If the Centre agrees, fingerprints and iris scans of students taken at different stages – application, examination, counselling and admission -- will be verified with details stored in the national registry.
Students will be asked to submit their Aadhaar number and their biometric data such as fingerprints and iris scans will be used for verification with data in the unique identity card, he told The Times of India. “At present, we collect students’ fingerprints twice in the examination hall, once before the start of the exam and another at the end. But these are not digital records. They are taken on paper,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu government has now written to the NTA asking for these documents so it can verify the veracity of every medical student. “We will be sharing the data with the state and help them carry out a fair investigation,” he said. The NTA did not expect such malpractices to happen this year. “We were careful about what they should bring into exam hall because we did not want them to copy. We will make rules stringent the next year, but we will also ensure it’s not difficult for the students,” he said.
Nevertheless, the NTA will not advice or suggest to other states to match fingerprints with first year MBBS students in their state because the agency’s job ends with conducting examination and declaring results. “Tamil Nadu busted the scam only because admission agency and colleges checked the records,” he said. MCI board of governors chairman V K Paul told TOI last week that it will wait for the law enforcing agency and investigating agency to carry out complete investigation.
In the last one month, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested at least four students who used different methods to cheat the system to get into medical colleges. Inquiries by the Directorate of Medical Education and police revealed that while K V Udit Surya admitted to Theni Government Medical College never took NEET, Mohammed Irfan from Dharmapuri Government Medical College had changed his scores from 207 to
407. Two students, Praveen S and Raghul Davis, wrote the NEET from Tamil Nadu while their imposters took the test in their name from centres in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. As their imposters scored better than them, they used their imposters score cards to join deemed universities – SRM Medical College and Hospital and Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital.
While admission to government colleges were done by the state selection committee attached to the Directorate of Medical Education in Tamil Nadu, the admission to the deemed universities was through centralised online counselling by the medical counselling committee, Directorate General of Health Services. As per Supreme Court directions, all selection committees use merit in NEET criteria for admissions. Neither the NTA nor the selection committees was aware of the scam until a whistleblower in Tamil Nadu blew the lid off by sending details of one first-year medical student to the Theni Government Medical College.
Inquiries conducted by the CBCID police with students and parents led to arrest of one agent. The police are still tracking a couple of more agents in cities including Bangalore. “This seems to be a well-oiled network functioningfor some time now across the country. Agents identify imposters who can pose as students and write NEET. Parents have paid up to ₹20 lakh for this,” said a senior investigating officer.
If the Centre agrees, fingerprints and iris scans of students taken at different stages will be verified with details stored in the national registry
VINEET JOSHI
NTA director general
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