What central exam body told Parliamentary panel on NEET-UG cancellation

📌 Summary:

• Officials of the National Testing Agency (NTA) told a Parliamentary committee on Thursday that NEET-UG was cancelled because the situation had reached a point where the credibility of the examination was impacted.

• The remarks were made before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh; the NTA Director General and another senior official appeared before it.

• Opposition members raised the issue of an alleged intelligence failure, demanded that senior NTA officials take moral responsibility, and pressed for the incident to be treated seriously.

• BJP and Opposition members differed on terminology — Opposition called it a "paper leak", while BJP members argued the examination was "compromised" rather than leaked.

• The committee directed the NTA to submit more detailed explanations; the NTA said steps had been taken to conduct the re-examination in a flawless manner.

• Opposition members also objected to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's earlier remark that the panel had Opposition members who "write in a certain way", and that the committee was "playing politics".

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 — governance and accountability in the education sector, examination integrity, the role of parliamentary committees in legislative oversight, and the autonomy and credibility of testing agencies.

🔑 Key Term: Parliamentary Standing Committee — a permanent committee of Parliament that scrutinises ministries, bills and policy in detail, enabling continuous legislative oversight of the executive.