NEW DELHI: To ensure the NEET-UG retest on Sunday (June 21) takes place smoothly, the National Testing Agency (NTA) will be conducting a nationwide drill on Saturday (June 20), said the Education Ministry.
The NTA expressed confidence that it was fully geared up to conduct a transparent and secure re-exam through a multi-layered security and monitoring framework, mobilisation of over 2 lakh personnel and candidate-centric measures.
The agency has also started reaching out to the 22.79 lakh candidates slated to take up the exam through WhatsApp while strongly asserting that no leaks have taken place.
The agency issued a series of public notices and press statements on Friday. To hold the re-exam across 561 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, it has mobilised over 2 lakh personnel, it said in a release.
A total of 674 city co-ordinators, 6,699 observers for independent oversight, along with Centre superintendents and invigilators at every examination centre, are facilitating the process.
"Coordinated effort has been undertaken with district administrators, police forces and escort teams, particularly for the secure transportation of confidential materials," it said.
NTA has put in place a multi-layered security framework to ensure a fair exam.
"End-to-end secure handling of confidential materials to designated locations under sealed protocols, GPS-enabled vehicles with police escort for movement of examination materials, CCTV surveillance at all examination centres with feeds linked to centralised control rooms, mandatory frisking through high-sensitivity metal detectors and Aadhaar-based biometric authentication to prevent impersonation have been put in place," it said.
WhatsApp messages
NTA has begun sending exam updates and information on the centres for re-test to candidates directly on WhatsApp.
It appealed to all candidates to take precautions and verify if the communication was sent only by the NTA by following these three steps — crosscheck if the msgs are sent only from the agency's verified account +91 78279 80287; watch out for the blue verified tick name 'National Testing Agency'; and finally any number without the blue tick is NOT NTA — even if it uses our name.
It stressed that NTA is operating this as a broadcast-only channel.
"We will not ask you to reply, share OTPs/personal details, or pay. Any 'NTA' message that does so is fraud," it added.
The admit cards issued to all students for the May 3 exam, NEET UG, which was cancelled, are no longer valid, it stressed.
In a public notice, it said that students who are unable to complete the biometric verification at the exam centre due to various reasons will be allowed to take up the exam after submitting an undertaking at the exam centre, for which forms are available there.
No student will be disturbed during the exam duration between 2 pm and 5.15 pm. It also appealed to all aspirants to report suspicious messages on innovateindia.mygov.in/neet-ug-2026 or call 1930 / cybercrime.gov.in.