Recheck all NEET OMR sheets, halt counselling: Maharashtra

MUMBAI: The state govt has sought a re-evaluation of all OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of undergraduate NEET takers through a forensic audit. It also asked that the all-India counselling and the state-level admission process be kept on hold till the “issue is resolved” and the grace marks granted be cancelled.
On Monday, the state’s medical education secretary, Dinesh Waghmare, wrote to the Union secretary of health and the senior director of National Testing Agency (NTA), saying his department had received representation from several MBBS aspirants “disturbed” over their all-India NEET ranks.In the letter, he said there was a difference between the actual marks published on the score cards and marks calculated by candidates as per their OMR sheet. “Give a stay on the all-India and state counselling process for NEET-UG 2024 till this issue is resolved. Remove grace marks given to specific students for loss of time,” the state demanded.
Students who took the NEET have been complaining about the large number of high scorers, particularly those who scored 720/720 and how eight of them were from the same exam centre. Moreover, questions have been raised over the grace marks given by NTA and the formula applied to normalise scores.
In his letter, Waghmare questioned the awarding of grace marks, which have no mention in the NEET brochure published by the NTA. “Still, the NTA has implemented its own rule while publishing the result of NEET UG 2024,” he said. The provision of grace marks, said a parent, was made applicable for CLAT (Common Law Aptitude Test) after a court order of 2018, but “was not meant for medical and engineering entrance exam”.
This year, close to 24 lakh candidates took NEET. Post results, there was a nationwide furore among aspirants who saw their ranks drop when a score-and-rank analysis was done and comparisons made with the scenario in 2023. NTA then set up a committee to investigate the issue. “However, the panel was set up by NTA, not an external body, which raises concerns about what the outcome would be,” said another parent.