The Union government has sought assistance from state governments to ensure the integrity of its entrance exams and prevent paper leaks. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla met with state Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police last week to request their help in overseeing upcoming exams, including the All India Ayush Postgraduate Entrance Test (AIAPGET) and the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), scheduled for July 6, as reported by the Indian Express.

The AIAPGET, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for the Ayush Ministry, facilitates admissions to MD/MS programs in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. The FMGE, conducted twice a year by the National Board of Examination (NBE) under the Health Ministry, screens overseas medical graduates seeking to practice medicine in India. Nearly 100,000 candidates took these two computer-based exams last year.

During the meeting, Bhalla requested states to enhance oversight by appointing one civil and one police observer at each exam centre in their jurisdictions. These observers are tasked with ensuring the exams are conducted fairly and without malpractice. States were also asked to designate a state-level nodal officer to coordinate with the exam-conducting agencies, the report said.

Currently, the exam-conducting agencies typically assign one observer per test center. For instance, the NTA assigns one observer per center for the AIAPGET. However, concerns over the integrity of several national entrance exams, including arrests related to the alleged leak of the NEET-UG paper, have prompted the government to review and reinforce its examination systems.

Over the past two weeks, several high-level meetings have been held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Education Ministry, Cabinet Secretariat, and the Prime Minister’s Office to address the issues related to alleged paper leaks. It was decided that at least three observers would be assigned to each exam centre instead of just one.

A pilot initiative was conducted for the All India Entrance Exam for Admission (AIEEA PG) and ICAR-AICE-JRF/SRF, organized by the NTA on June 29 on behalf of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). This exam, for admission to master’s programs and research programs in accredited agricultural universities, featured additional oversight, with ICAR appointing its own observer for each exam centre alongside the NTA’s observer.

The Home Secretary’s recent meeting follows a series of controversies and allegations regarding the integrity of the NEET undergraduate entrance test. These concerns led the Centre to cancel the UGC-NET due to paper leak claims and postpone two other exams (NEET-PG and CSIR-UGC NET) as a precaution.

The Education Ministry acknowledged credible evidence of a paper leak for UGC-NET, prompting its cancellation. However, it maintained that there was no large-scale leak of the NEET-UG paper and decided not to cancel it. The NTA barred only 17 candidates in Bihar, who allegedly benefited from what Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan described as a “localised error” a day before the exam.

Despite this, Pradhan took moral responsibility for the issues faced by students. The Education Ministry subsequently established a reforms committee to suggest measures to improve the NTA’s examination process.

Amid the controversy, NTA Chief Subodh Kumar Singh, who oversaw the UGC-NET and NEET-UG exams, was removed from his position and placed on compulsory wait in the Department of Personnel and Training.