Congress students union occupies NTA hq, leaves after protest

The Congress's student and youth wings took to the streets in the national capital on Thursday over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams, with NSUI members forcefully entering the NTA headquarters and locking its office, and the IYC staging a huge protest at Jantar Mantar.

The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has threatened to lock NTA offices across the country if their demand to ban the NTA is not met.

The police resorted to lathicharge to disperse protesters at Jantar Mantar where the Indian Youth Congress, Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA) and Delhi University's Krantikari Yuva Sangathan continued their indefinite sit-in for the second day on the issue.

At the National Testing Agency (NTA) headquarters at Okhla, the Delhi police has deployed a team of security personnel to prevent the recurrence of any such protest.

NSUI members stormed into the testing agency's headquarters during the protest led by its national president Varun Choudhary.

The students' body staged a sit-in inside the NTA office for nearly an hour and left by the time senior police officers reached the spot.

Visuals from the scene showed NSUI members raising "shut down NTA" slogans inside the building of the agency. It also showed students locking the NTA office with an iron lock and chain.

"The NTA officials had locked the door from inside as students were protesting. Subsequently, the protesters also locked the door from outside with an iron chain and lock," a police officer said.

"No more Corrupt NTA. #NTA BAN," read a message pasted on the iron lock and chain.

The students outfit has threatened to lock NTA offices across the country if their demand to scrap the testing agency is not met.

There was no immediate response from the NTA about the incident.

In separate protest earlier in the day, the IYC staged a massive demonstration at Jantar Mantar over the NEET-UG exam and against the Agniveer Scheme.

The Congress's youth wing accused police of using batons against the protesters.

A huge crowd of IYC workers led by its national president Srinivas BV gathered at the Jantar Mantar with placards against the NTA. 

When Youth Congress workers started moving forward to gherao Parliament as previously announced, police tried to stop them by setting up barricades.

They also lathicharged the protestors and detained many IYC workers, visuals from the protest site showed.

A senior police officer, however, refused allegations of lathicharge and said "mild force" was used when the protesters tried to break the barricades.

According to the police, the IYC had given a time slot from 10 am to 1 pm for the protest. As they did not disperse from the area beyond the permitted time and when they stood on the barricades, the police used mild force to disperse them from there.

"Mild force was used only after they (students) pelted stones and bottles on the policemen deployed near the barricades," the officer said.

The officer said some of the protestors tried to break the barricades by pushing a parked water tanker towards it.

Around 60 protestors were detained from the site, the officer said.

Members of AISA and other students outfits also staged a demonstration in large numbers carrying 'dhaplis', posters and banners. They demanded that the NTA be scrapped and that called for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

According to the police officer, a case may be registered against NSUI and IYC for creating ruckus at the NTA office and Jantar Mantar.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates taking part in it. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.

The education ministry also cancelled the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) and NEET (postgraduate) examinations after receiving inputs that the exams' "integrity may have been compromised".