The executive director of National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET-PG) Dr Bipin Batra has been removed from his post by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) as his appointment was not approved by the central government.

The NEET-PG has been surrounded with controversies even before the examination was held on December 2016. The online paper was hacked across test centres in the country. Students alleged that deserving candidates were unable to get seats in the PG exams, while the undeserving ones were investing a huge sum of money or using their power to secure a good rank.

Dr Bipin Batra was tied to scam and it was alleged that he was the main culprit behind the hacking and the mismanagement.

In its draft resolution, NBE wrote, “the present Board was nominated on June 20, 2016 and ever since then the Board has been noticing various irregularities, lack in transparency and malfunctioning of the NBE administration, the latest being the large scale misdeeds/malpractices pertaining to the conduct of the NEET exam that are currently being investigated by various authorities.”

Dr Rashmikant Dave, the vice president of NBE is appointed as the Honorary Executive Director by the Board until such time as an executive director is regularly appointed by the board and approved by the central government.

“The Government of India, as per the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that Dr Batra’s post wasn’t approved. Since there was a crisis, the place had to be filled temporarily by a member of the Board. This is an honorary post till it is filled by an executive director regularly appointed by the Board and the central government. It might take three months, six months, or even one month for the post to permanently fill,” said Dr Dave to The Logical Indian.

NBE Secretary cum Registrar also suspended

As per the draft resolution issued by the NBE, Dr Anurag Agarwal who was officiating as the Secretary cum Registrar of the NBE was relieved from his duties as his post too wasn’t approved by the central government. However, he will still continue as the Joint Director of NBE.

All current standing counsel dismissed from duty

The Board appointed Advocate Kirtiman Singh as the standing counsel for NBE with immediate effect as an interim arrangement.

All other advocate/standing counsel currently representing NBE were relieved from their duties.

The Logical Indian community welcomes the government’s move to dismiss Dr Bipin Batra from the post of executive director of NBE. No matter how many colleges or seats are there if 30-40℅ of students are fake, you cannot expect them to save lives. We hope such cases are not repeated in the future as it not only spoils the careers if deserving candidates but also adversely affects the general public.