MEDICAL entrance exam NEETUG was held at more than 5,400 centresaroundthecountryamid strict monitoring and security measures on Sunday, officials said. More than 22.7 lakh candidates hadregistered for the test. Theofficialattendancedatawill be available in a few hours.

 

Mock drills were held at all National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG)centresonSaturday to ensure smooth conduct of the nationwide exam. Most of the centres were located in Government and Governmentaided schools, colleges, universities and institutions. While no untoward incidents havebeenreportedsofar,members of the Brahmin communityheldaprotestoutsideanexam centreinKarnataka’sKalaburagi, demandingaccountabilityafter some students from the community were asked to remove their ‘janivara (sacred thread)’ before entering the exam hall.

 

Three men were detained by the Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan Police for allegedly trying to dupe a candidate of Rs 40 lakh by promising him the question paper. In Bhubaneshwar, police arrested four members of an interstategangforallegedlytaking money from aspirants for admission in a medical college. “There were three layers of monitoring today -- at the district,State,and central levels.To ensure smooth and secure conduct of the exam, mock drills were conducted at all centres.

 

These drills helped in testing readiness in terms of functionality of mobile signal jammers, availability of adequate manpower for frisking, and biometric authentication procedures,” an official said. Transporting question papers under police escort, monitoring coaching centres to identify organised cheating rackets, multi-layered friskingbydistrictpoliceinaddition to designated security personnel at the exam centreswere among the steps taken by the NationalTesting Agency , led by the Union Education Ministry