The Congress Working Committee member and former Pradesh Congress Committee president Gidugu Rudra Raju on Saturday(June 20) alleged that the National Testing Agency (NTA) was playing with the lives of students through faulty decisions, including the allocation of examination centres in faraway places, other States and even abroad.
Speaking to The Hindu in Vizianagaram on the eve of the NEET re-examination scheduled on Sunday, Mr. Rudra Raju alleged that a student from Nagpur in Maharashtra had been allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi and that many students had suffered due to the allocation of centres in distant locations.
Expressing concern over the reported suicides of 12 students in Coimbatore, Dehradun, Indore, New Delhi and other places, he demanded that the families of the deceased be paid compensation of at least ₹1 crore each, though no amount of money could compensate for the loss of innocent lives.
Mr. Rudra Raju said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had consistently raised concerns over the examination process, drawing attention to the difficulties faced by lakhs of students and parents across the country.
He urged the Union government to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers of all States and seek their suggestions to ensure foolproof arrangements for national-level examinations scheduled to be conducted in 2027.
“Education is on the Concurrent List. However, the Centre has gradually curtailed the role of the States under the one-nation-one-exam policy. Having failed to conduct the examinations smoothly, it should now consult the States and incorporate their suggestions to ensure error-free examinations in future. As many as 88 examinations were cancelled due to paper leaks in the last few years. The States, too, faced several challenges in making arrangements for the re-examinations. This is the right time for the Centre to take their suggestions,” Mr. Rudra Raju said.
Published - June 20, 2026 12:49 pm IST
education / medicine (education) / India
Source: The Hindu - India News
