New Delhi, June 21 -- Over 20 lakh medical aspirants took a second shot at the NEET (UG) examination on Sunday after the original test was cancelled due to paper leaks, an issue that became a hot potato for the government and also triggered a popular protest movement.
Abhishek Singh, the Director General of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which has been receiving flak following the paper leak row, said the whole-of-government approach helped it to conduct the mammoth exercise in record time.
In a statement, NTA said more than 20 lakh candidates appeared for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination across 5,440 centres in India and 14 centres abroad. The exam was conducted in 13 languages, including Hindi and English.
"This was not the NTA acting alone. It was Team Bharat - a chain of people across the country who showed up so that, for each candidate, the only thing that mattered that morning was the paper in front of them," the agency said.
"In all, around 7 lakh officials - police teams, observers and examination staff - were mobilised across India to conduct this examination, and it was done in a record 37 days. NTA is especially grateful to the experts from academic institutions across the country who gave their personal time to help prepare multiple sets of question papers," the NTA said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed arrangements for the smooth conduct of the re-examination at the NTA headquarters in Delhi's Okhla.
"NTA apprised the minister of the logistical and technical arrangements put in place for the efficient and transparent conduct of the examination," the Ministry of Education said.
The NTA said extensive arrangements were made for all candidates, including more than 10,000 Persons with Disabilities.
"Special arrangements were put in place for around 81 candidates with medical conditions, among them a child who had been in a road accident, and a child undergoing chemotherapy, who were determined not to miss an exam they had prepared for years," it said.
The agency said Aadhaar-based biometric and face authentication, CCTV surveillance, jammers and two-layer frisking with the support of state police were deployed at examination centres.
"Command and control centres for CCTV monitoring were established at the national level - at the NTA and at the Ministry of Education, at 34 Centrally Funded Institutions of the Department of Higher Education, in every State, and at District Collectorates," it said.
"There were some minor reports regarding people coming with wrong admit cards, people coming with some forged admit cards at a few places; impersonation cases were also found out," NTA DG Abhishek Singh said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.