Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 22 (ANI): Telangana Congress spokesperson Sama Ram Mohan Reddy on Friday strongly criticised the National Testing Agency (NTA) over the NEET-UG 2026 controversy, questioning its explanation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee that only certain questions were leaked and not the entire question paper.

Reddy, reacting to reported remarks of NTA Director General Abhishek Singh, said the explanation amounted to an admission of paper leakage and accused the agency of 'destroying the future' of lakhs of students.

'Is he joking or what? While answering the Parliament Standing Committee, he says that only certain questions were leaked and because of irregularities, they had to cancel the examination. That itself is nothing but the leakage of the question paper,' Reddy said.

He further alleged that the incident had severely impacted aspirants across the country.

'You have destroyed the lives of 22 lakh students because of your negligence. This is the time to learn lessons, not to do any patchwork of your failures. This is an entirely failed administration,' he added.

His remarks come amid ongoing political debate over the NEET-UG 2026 examination, after NTA officials informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee that the paper was not leaked in full and that only certain questions had surfaced prior to the exam, as per the sources.

According to sources, NTA DG Abhishek Singh and Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi told the committee that several reforms recommended for strengthening the examination system had already been implemented, while work on the remaining measures was ongoing.

Officials maintained that the alleged leak did not originate from the NTA system and said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the circulation of leaked questions that led to the cancellation of the examination, as per the sources.

They also defended the cancellation under the agency's 'zero-tolerance' policy, stating that even limited compromise of questions could undermine public trust in competitive examinations.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee also reviewed measures being taken to prevent similar incidents in the future and discussed proposals to shift NEET-UG to a computer-based testing format from next year.

Political tensions continue over the NEET-UG 2026 controversy, which led to the cancellation of the examination held on May 3 across 551 cities in India and 14 international centres, with over 22 lakh candidates appearing.

The re-examination is scheduled for June 21 under enhanced security measures mandated by the Union Education Ministry. (ANI)