The Congress on Sunday (October 11, 2026) said a Parliamentary Standing Committee report had catalogued the “grave incompetence and malpractice” in the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Ministry of Education, and hoped the Modi government “sheds its arrogance for the limited time it has remaining” and takes the report seriously.
The Congress said the Committee’s report, titled “Reforms and Strengthening of the National Testing Agency (NTA),” had highlighted that the Ministry of Education made the “blatantly false” claim to the panel that no paper leak had occurred in an exam conducted by the NTA since its formation in 2017.
Listing the main highlights of the report, Mr. It is not a statutory body that has been created by an Act of Parliament. “The NTA’s structure and design is not transparent and serves to enable the paper leak mafia. Despite repeated recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, there is no nationwide blacklist of firms with a track record of failure in providing examination-related services such as paper setting, logistics, printing and administration. At a time when the NTA was tackling multiple paper leaks and was meant to implement reforms proposed by the K. Radhakrishnan Committee, the government failed to appoint a full-time officer to lead the agency, Mr. We can only hope that the Modi government sheds its arrogance for the limited time it has remaining and takes this report seriously,” Mr.
“There have been 9 paper leaks and irregularities in NTA-conducted exams that we know of. “The NTA is registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Between the NEET paper leaks of 2024 and 2026, the post of Director General of the NTA was held by officers as an additional charge, he said.
It therefore functions with limited accountability and parliamentary oversight,” Mr. Because the Committee ‘had members of the Opposition in it, “The former Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had dismissed this Standing Committee’s previous recommendations on reforming the NTA.
In a statement, Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, under the chairmanship of Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik, “catalogues the grave incompetence and malpractice in the NTA and the Ministry of Education. Ramesh said the Ministry made the “blatantly false and audacious claim” to the Committee that no paper leak had occurred in an NTA exam from its formation in 2017 until 2025. What hope is there for a fair investigation or accountability when the Ministry even refuses to acknowledge what went wrong in the first place?” he said. Ramesh said. Firms blacklisted in one State routinely get government contracts in others,” he said.
