A section of present and former university teachers demanded that the responsibility of conducting the medical entrance tests should be left with the respective states during a convention at Jadavpur University on Tuesday.

Allegations of question paper leak and arbitrary awarding of grace marks have rocked this year’s National-Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET).

As many as 67 students scored a perfect 720.

“The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, had lost its credibility,” said Malayendu Saha, a Calcutta University professor and former chairman of the state joint entrance examination board, said while addressing the convention.

“In Gujarat, five persons have been arrested in connection with alleged cheating in NEET. The CBI last week arrested two persons from Patna. This shows that the NTA has lost its credibility,” said Saha.

“We demand that the responsibility of holding the exam be given back to the respective state governments for the sake of fairness.”

Till 2015, the Bengal JEE board would conduct the medical and engineering entrance tests.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on June 24 wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the abolition of NEET following the allegations of a paper leak.

She sought immediate steps to restore the previous system where state governments would conduct the exam.

Saha said: “The agency cannot handle such a vast number of candidates. So the responsibility should be again assigned to bodies like the JEE board.”

This year over 23 lakh candidates wrote NEET on May 5 in over 5,000 centres across the country.

Debnarayan Banerjee, former vice-chancellor of Bankura University and an adviser to the state higher education council, said: “This year somehow the allegations of irregularities have come to the fore, but we don’t know what has happened in the previous years.”