Claiming that the National Testing Agency (NTA) made a profit of Rs 448 crore in the last six years, Congress said on Sunday that the future of millions of India’s youths has become a “mere revenue-raising exercise” for the ruling dispensation.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said, “The National Testing Agency (NTA) is at the very heart of the NEET scandal. It is a body of the Education Ministry whose only purpose is to function via outsourcing to private vendors. Not only do these vendors very often have dubious credentials but the NTA itself is headed by a person who presided over the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, which has seen mega-scams.”

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Ramesh, who is the Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, said, “In an answer to the Rajya Sabha, the Union MoS for Education has revealed that the NTA collected an estimated Rs 3,512.98 crore while it spent Rs 3,064.77 crore on the conduct of examinations – it therefore netted a profit of Rs. 448 crores in the last six years.”

Attacking the BJP government, he said, “This corpus, however, has not been used to build the agency’s capabilities to conduct tests itself, or to strengthen regulatory and monitoring capabilities for its vendors. The future of millions of India’s youths has ultimately become a mere revenue-raising exercise for the non-biological PM’s government.”

The Congress leader along with the post also shared the written statement made by Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar in Rajya Sabha on 31st July in response to a question on NTA.

“NTA was established in the year 2018. Since its inception, NTA has conducted over 240 examinations involving over 5.4 crores candidates. NTA is self-supporting through the examination fee collected,” he said.

The minister further said, “Considering the sensitivity involved in competitive examinations, various operational and security measures are undertaken for their smooth and fair conduct. Such measures involve engagement of specialised/experienced agencies for providing services like capturing of Biometric, frisking, CCTV surveillance, Al analytics with a view to identify any potential impersonation, exam delivery, etc.”