Protests trigger sweeping purge in NTA
From dismissals to fresh appointments, NTA begins restructuring after nationwide protests
In a major crackdown in any Government department in recent times, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday terminated the services of 47 officials amidst the NEET-UG paper leak row, followed by massive protests across the country. Late Thursday, the education ministry also affected major reshuffle.
Apart from the dismissals, legal and criminal proceedings are also set to be initiated against some of the officials in NTA. The move is part of a broader push to reform the exam conducting agency functioning, with more corrective measures expected in the coming days.
“NTA has terminated 47 officials from their service. Legal and criminal actions will also be taken against some of these officials. This is part of a complete overhaul of NTA that has been in controversy over paper leaks. While further reforms are on the cards, there will be complete overhaul of NTA,” sources in the education ministry said. Simultaneously, NTA issued advertisements for a set of senior professional appointments at the level of General Manager and has separately opened the engagement of sixteen Young Professionals through the Pratibha Setu portal of the Union Public Service Commission. These measures represent the first concrete step in the institutional rebuild of NTA that is being implemented in line with the recommendations of the High-Level Committee of Experts chaired by Prof K Radhakrishnan.
NTA was functioning with only 24 permanent employees against a sanctioned strength of 39 posts. The agency was relying on 73 contractual employees and 124 outsourced personnel to manage its operations.
A day earlier in a late-night development, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet replaced Education Secretary Vineet Joshi with Naresh Pal Gangwar.
Joshi, who had a stint as NTA DG earlier, was currently holding the charge of Secretary in the Department of Higher Education, School Education and as the Chairman of the University Grants Commission.
Joshi was given the charge of the School Education Department on the superannuation of Sanjay Kumar, who too had an unceremonious retirement at the backdrop of CBSE’s OSM digital marking fiasco, which also led to massive public outrage. The outrage led to the transfer of Rahul Singh as the CBSE Chairperson, to be replaced by Lokhande Prashant Sitaram.
The CBI has so far arrested 13 people in connection with the NEET paper leak and is set to file a chargesheet shortly. Investigations has revealed that the leak of the medical entrance exam question paper was not limited to a single individual but was executed through a network spread across multiple States. The probe has highlighted the roles of experts associated with the examination process, teachers from coaching institutes, and middlemen.
