Mumbai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has urged CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal to direct an inquiry in the alleged NEET data leak issue, news agency ANI reported.
In a letter to Karwal, Rahul said that the alleged data breach calls into questions the ability of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to ensure the sanctity of the examination process. “I am shocked by this wide-scale theft of personal data that has compromised the privacy of candidates across the country,” he added.
(Photo: ANI/Twitter)
Several media reports have claimed that a website had access to records of 250,000 students along with their gender, roll numbers, rank in the exam as well as their mobile numbers, and the data was available for a payment of up to Rs 2 lakh.
A state-wise data of candidates was available on the website which included those from Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand.
The website also offered “interested buyers” a chance to verify whether the data was genuine or not, as well as a free sample, The Wire had reported.
NEET is administered by CBSE as the entrance exam for medical colleges across the country. More than 13 lakh candidates appeared for the exam this year out of which data for 250,000 students is available for anyone willing to shell out lakhs of rupees for access to this data.
