Amid stress and protests among students over recurrent paper leaks and irregularities in critical national-level medical entrance examinations (NEET-UG), Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda shared the government’s achievement in increasing the number of undergraduate medical seats in India.
He said that undergraduate medical seats have risen from around 50,000 to over 1.20 lakh while addressing the gathering at an event in Delhi’s Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) on Tuesday.
The minister reiterated the government’s plan to increase the number by adding 75,000 undergraduate medical seats over the next five years, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2024.
Drawing attention to the efforts, Nadda further stated that the Centre has already added 25,000 seats, calling it “steady progress towards achieving this objective.”
The number of seats for Postgraduate students has also expanded from nearly 50,000 to 80,000, the minister noted.
Despite the increased seats for the medical examination, students have suffered due to alleged paper leaks.
Earlier this month, over 20 lakh students appeared in NEET-2026 re-examination on June 21, after the alleged leak of the previous paper held on May 3.
A similar leak was reported in NEET-2024, when a staggering 67 students obtained full marks in the exam, of which six students belonged to the same centre.