NEET-UG counselling likely to begin at month end
New Delhi (PTI): Counselling for NEET-UG, 2024, is expected to start by the end of this month, official sources said.
The counselling session was likely to begin in the first week of July. However, the counselling authorities had not notified any date or schedule.
The sources said the process of issuing permission letters to some medical colleges was still underway and additional seats were likely to be added.
"The date of counselling will be announced once the exercise gets over to ensure seats of the new colleges can be taken up in the first round itself," an official source said.
They said the counselling process might begin later this month.
Amid growing clamour for cancellation of the controversy-ridden National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2024, over alleged malpractice, the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) told the Supreme Court on Friday that scrapping it without any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality would be counterproductive as it could "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates.
The apex court last month refused to defer the counselling process. It was hearing a petition seeking a direction to pause the process for two days.
The NTA, which conducts NEET-UG for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses, and the Union education ministry have been at the centre of media debates and protests by students and political parties over alleged large-scale malpractice -- ranging from question paper leaks to impersonation -- in the test held on May 5.
In the line of fire over the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG and PhD entrance NET, the Centre removed Subodh Singh as the NTA director general and notified a high-level panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief R Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the agency.
While NEET-UG is under the scanner over several irregularities, the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) was cancelled after the education ministry received inputs that the integrity of the exam was compromised.
Both matters are being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Two other exams -- CSIR-UGC NET and NEET-PG -- were cancelled as a preemptive step. Fresh dates for both have been announced.
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Punjab: 15-year-old girl gives birth to baby months after alleged rape
Chandigarh (PTI): A 15-year-old girl has delivered a baby in Jalandhar, months after she was allegedly raped by a boy in Amritsar, police said on Thursday.
The class 9 student has been living with her aunt in Jalandhar for the past seven months, said the aunt who filed the complaint of rape to the police.
When contacted over phone on Thursday, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Phillaur, Bharat Masih said, "We have registered a Zero FIR in the matter as the alleged rape took place in Amritsar.." He said the accused is 16 years old.
The victim's aunt said in her complaint that a month and a half back, the teenager complained of abdominal pain, due to which, she was taken for a checkup to a private doctor in Jalandhar's Nurmahal. The doctor prescribed some medicines, she said.
On April 19, the girl complained of severe abdominal pain, after which she took the teenager to a private hospital in Phillaur in Jalandhar. The doctor there referred the girl to another hospital, where she was told that she was pregnant.
Later, she gave birth to a baby in the hospital. When the girl's aunt asked her about her pregnancy, she said that a boy in Amritsar who lived in her locality had raped her, the complainant said.
A police station under Jalandhar Rural police jurisdiction has registered a Zero FIR in the matter and the boy has been booked under relevant provisions of the POCSO Act and the BNS on April 20, police said.
A Zero FIR is an FIR that can be filed in any police station, irrespective of place of incident/jurisdiction and the same can be later transferred to the appropriate police station.
