Amid the exams row in connection with the NEET-UG 2024 and growing demand for a retest, the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination 2024 began smoothly on Saturday. While no untoward incident was reported, the Centre dismissed rumours that the questions for the all-India test were leaked.
Health ministry officials, however, said it is keeping a close watch on the examination for foreign medical graduates and has set up a command centre for monitoring at the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) headquarters in Delhi.
The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) is a screening test for medical graduates to become eligible to practise medicine in India. A total of 35,819 candidates are taking the June 2024 exam at 71 centres in 50 cities across 21 states. The exam is being held in two shifts — 9 am to 11.30 am and 2 pm to 4.30 pm.
“The content was successfully downloaded at all test centres. The examination started at all examination centres smoothly. A team of officers from MHA (ministry of home affairs) has visited NBEMS HQ. No untoward incidence has been reported,” an official said.
Officials said 255 appraisers have been appointed for all the centres, 53 faculty members have been appointed as flying squad, while the Directorate General Of Health Services (DGHS) has nominated 71 members to visit the exam centres. Besides, 42 NBEMS staff have been deputed at the centres, they said.
They further said a command centre has been set up at the NBEMS headquarters in Dwarka, where members of the governing body, officials of the NBEMS, technical team of 20 TCS officials and senior police officers are monitoring the progress of the examination. Each and every test centre is being monitored through a live CCTV feed while a ground team of TCS officials are attending to the operational and logistics issues, they added.
The ministry of health and family welfare, meanwhile, rubbished social media reports claiming that the FMGE 2024 questions were leaked. According to a report published by Times of India, an ministry official said these reports are “completely misleading and untrue” as the questions are prepared only a few hours before the exam.
“This is completely misleading and untrue. FMGE is a computer-based test. The questions are prepared a few hours before the exam. Therefore, it is not possible for anyone to have them already. Examinees should beware of such cheats,” an official told ToI.
What is the latest in the NEET row?
Amid the growing clamour for cancellation of the controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 over alleged malpractices, the counselling for the exam scheduled for Saturday was cancelled and the new dates will soon be announced. The Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Supreme Court on Friday (July 5) that scrapping the test will be “counterproductive” and “seriously jeopardise” lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.
The NTA, which conducts the NEET-UG for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses, and the education ministry have been at the centre of media debates and protests by students and political parties over alleged large-scale malpractices ranging from question paper leak to impersonation in the test held on May 5. Both have filed separate affidavits opposing the pleas, which have sought scrapping of the exam plagued by controversy, a re-test and court-monitored probe into the entire gamut of issues involved.
In their responses, they said the CBI, the country’s premier investigating agency, has taken over the cases registered in different states. They added that there was no proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in the examination, which was taken by more than 23 lakh candidates at 4,750 centres in 571 cities.
“It is also submitted that at the same time, in the absence of any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination and the results already declared,” the Centre said in its preliminary affidavit filed by a director in the education ministry.
“Scrapping the exam in entirety would seriously jeopardise the lakhs of honest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024,” the ministry said, adding that in any examination, there were competing rights and interests of a large number of students who take it without adopting any unfair means must also not be jeopardised.
The NTA, in its separate affidavit, reiterated the Centre’s stand and said: “The cancellation of the entire examination on the basis of the aforesaid factor, would be hugely counterproductive and significantly harmful to the larger public interest, especially to the career prospects of the qualified candidates.”
The agency said the entirety of NEET-UG 2024 was carried out fairly and with due confidentiality without any illegal practices, and the claim of “mass malpractice” during the exam is “completely unfounded, misleading, and lacks any basis”.
“It is submitted that if the entire examination process is cancelled without their being any tangible factors warranting such actions it would be highly detrimental to the larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrongdoing or even an allegation of wrongdoing,” the NTA said.
The top court is scheduled to hear a batch of pleas on July 8, including those alleging irregularities in the examination held on May 5 and seeking a direction that it be held afresh.
(With PTI inputs)
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