Expressing concerns over the repeated allegations of paper leaks, irregularities, and administrative failures surrounding the NEET-UG conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), Praja Arogya Vedika (PAV), affiliated to Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), has urged the Centre to ensure a transparent and independent probe into the issue and fix accountability.

In a letter addressed to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, PAV said repeated controversies were damaging public trust in the integrity of public examinations and causing psychological stress to lakhs of students and their parents across the country.

PAV observed that such irregularities disproportionately affect meritorious students, belonging to the middle class and lower middle class, rural, and economically weaker sections. Repeated examination failures undermine social justice and equal opportunity in education.

The organisation also raised concerns regarding the increasing centralisation of entrance examinations under the ‘one nation–one entrance test’ framework, stating that it weakens meaningful State-level participation in education governance and intensifies the coaching centre-driven and commercialised nature of competitive examinations. Paper leak controversies expose the vulnerabilities of an over-centralised system where a single failure impacts lakhs of students nationwide.

The PAV urged the Union government to strengthen safeguards against examination fraud, and initiate a comprehensive public review of the present examination model followed by the NTA.