New Delhi: With NEET-UG re-test scheduled for next month after the May 3-exam was cancelled following a paper leak, the central government is considering bringing in the defence forces to manage logistics and transportation.
Government sources told ThePrint Thursday a meeting was held at the residence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia were among those to attend the meeting alongside officers from the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Sources said the discussions revolved around deploying the IAF for logistics and transport of the question papers from the printing press to destinations across the country. Until now, the question papers were transported through the postal service, which involved multiple transfers and officials.
It was not immediately clear that the new process, if adopted, would be limited to the re-test or whether it would be rolled out as the general norm for future NEET exams.
Sources said no decision has been taken as yet and the Prime Minister’s Office will be involved, given the criticism the government is facing over the leak and the Opposition’s onslaught on the issue.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the medical entrance exam, had announced that it would adopt a “zero-trust, always inspect” policy towards the re-test.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2026 was conducted on 3 May, but was scrapped after NTA got information that parts of the question paper had been leaked days earlier.
The re-test will be held on 21 June.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this week arrested a Latur-based paediatrician and a Physics tutor at a Pune coaching institute, taking the number of suspect in the paper leak case to 13.
CBI took over the probe from the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG), which had initially found out that a family from Sikar had purchased the question papers, which ended up reaching students in Maharashtra’s Latur and Pune.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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