T.N. Seema, MP, has alleged the role of the “north Indian lobby” in changing the benchmark for passing the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by the University Grant Commission (UGC) this time.
In a statement here on Saturday, she said nearly 70 per cent of the 43,957 candidates who had appeared for NET in June this year had failed to make the revised grade fixed by the UGC after the test was conducted.
At the time of the test, the marks specified for passing the test was 40-40-75 for the first, second, and third papers respectively in the case of general category candidates. The pass marks specified originally for OBC/OEC candidates were 35-35-68 and that for the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes candidates 35-35-60.
However, after the results were announced, the UGC announced a new stipulation that the general candidates should have obtained 65 per cent marks in aggregate while the OBC/OEC candidates should have scored 60 per cent and the SC/ST candidates, 55 per cent.
She said one-third of the total number of candidates who had won the NET nationwide was from three north Indian universities. Ms. Seema said she had written to Union Minister for Human Resources Kapil Sibal on the subject.
