No data leak from govt server, says Union Minister on alleged NEET breach

New Delhi, July 24: Amid reports claiming "massive breach" of data of candidates who appeared for the NEET examination this year, Ministert of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Satyapal Singh on Tuesday said there has been no leak from National Informatics Centre (NIC) servers.

"The DG of NIC has told me there has been no data leak from their server. But some private agency has collected data from students. So, perhaps it has been compromised. However, the Govt of India ensures no data leak from any Governemnt agency," news agency ANI quoted Singh as saying.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi earlier wrote a letter to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) over media reports claiming "massive breach" of data of candidates who appeared for the NEET examination this year. He also demanded a thorough enquiry into the matter.

In the letter to CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal, Gandhi called for putting in place additional safeguards to prevent such a breach in the future. The Congress leader's letter comes following reports that personal data, including names, phone numbers and email ids of over 2,00,000 candidates, who appeared for CBSE's National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) this year were available for a price on some online portals.

"I am shocked by this wide scale theft of personal data that has compromised the privacy of candidates across the country," Gandhi said in his letter.

He said it highlighted the "serious lack of safeguards" to prevent data breach, and calls into question the ability of the CBSE to ensure the sanctity of the examination process.

"I strongly urge you to order an inquiry against this shocking lapse and take action against the officials responsible for the same. In addition, I request you to put additional safeguards to prevent the recurrence of such data breaches," Gandhi said in the letter.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs