The Centre, pushed to the back foot following inaccurate translation of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) questions in Tamil, has decided to take affidavits from state governments on the accuracy of the translated question papers from the next year. 

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said this while responding to a question raised by AIADMK member Vijila Sathyananth during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha.

The NEET is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission to MBBS/BDS courses.

Sathyananth said 49 questions in the paper translated in Tamil were vague due to problems in translation and students suffered.

A PIL was filed in this regard and the court awarded grace marks to affected students, she said.

Javadekar said as the matter was in court, he won't speak much on the issue.

He, however, said the translators were provided by the Tamil Nadu government.

The minister further said that from the next year, the Centre would be taking affidavits from state governments that the translation done by their language experts was correct.

The AIADMK member had also pointed out that students appearing for the NEET exam had to travel to distant places to write the paper.

To this, Javadekar said he has already ordered that from the next year there would be no displacement of students.

As another member wanted to speak on the issue, Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the minister has assured the House that students need not go to other states and will have the facility to write the exam in their respective places.

With PTI inputs