Mamata Banerjee on Monday fired off a stern letter to Narendra Modi, demanding the abolition of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in the backdrop of allegations of paper leak and administrative inability to handle the vast procedure.

“… I strongly urge upon you to consider and take immediate steps to restore the previous system of conducting this examination by the state governments and abolish the NEET examination,” wrote the Bengal chief minister in her letter to the Prime Minister.

“This will help restore normalcy and confidence of the aspirant students in the system,” she added.

The Trinamool Congress chief, according to sources in her parliamentary party, has already instructed the MPs to go all-out in Delhi on issues such as the alleged NEET irregularities to corner the weakened Modi government from the very start in its third term.

Her letter to Modi on Monday was a crucial step in that direction — on a day Opposition MPs subjected him and others on the treasury benches of the newly elected 18th Lok Sabha to considerable discomfort over the NEET and NET (National Eligibility Test) controversies.

“The allegations of paper leak, taking (of) bribes by certain people and the officials involved in the conduct of the examinations, the opening of window to accommodate certain students to apply for examinations, grace marks, etc., are some of the serious issues that need complete attention and requires a thorough, clean and impartial probe,” wrote the chief minister.

“Such instances jeopardise the career and aspirations of lakhs and lakhs of students who look forward to get admission into these medical courses,” she added. “Such instances not only compromise the quality of medical education in the country but (also) adversely affect the quality of medical facilities/treatment.”

In her letter, Mamata underscored that states had the right to conduct their own entrance exams for medical courses before 2017, while the Centre used to conduct its own exam, and that arrangement used to operate without such issues.

She wrote that the previous system was better attuned to the regional curricula and educational standards and pointed out that state governments usually spend more than ₹50 lakh for each doctor, on their education and internship, and should
therefore be given the freedom to select medical students through the Joint Entrance Examination.

“The decentralised system was later changed to a unitary and centralised system of examination (NEET) to take complete control of all the admissions in the country in the medical courses without any involvement of the state governments. This is completely unacceptable and violates the true spirits of the federal structure of the country,” wrote the Trinamool chairperson.

“Further, the present system has led to massive corruption which benefits only the rich who can afford to pay, while the meritorious students belonging to the poor and middle class suffer and are the biggest victims,” she added. “Hope you are healthy.”