New Delhi, May 30 (H.S.): Congress leader and head of the party's media department, Pawan Khera, on Saturday criticized the Central Government following the observations made by the Supreme Court of India in the NEET-UG question paper leak case. Khera said it was unfortunate that the Supreme Court had to remind the government to perform duties that fall squarely within its own responsibilities.

Addressing journalists, Khera alleged that the government was attempting to evade accountability and was making a mockery of the situation by merely talking about monitoring mechanisms. He said that the future of millions of students was being jeopardized, yet no one appeared willing to take responsibility for the lapses.

Questioning ministerial accountability, Khera asked whether the Education Minister should be held responsible for the incident. He further remarked that if, as proposed, future examination papers were transported by the Air Force and another leak still occurred, would Defence Minister Rajnath Singh then be held accountable.

Notably, the Supreme Court on Friday observed that incidents such as question paper leaks would continue unless accountability was clearly fixed. The Court questioned the National Testing Agency, noting that the Union Public Service Commission conducts large-scale examinations across the country without experiencing paper leaks and suggested that the NTA should learn from its practices.

The NEET-UG examination was conducted nationwide on May 3. Reports of a question paper leak surfaced on the evening of May 7, following which the examination was cancelled on May 12. The re-examination is now scheduled to be held on June 21.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar