JAMSHEDPUR: Criticising the Centre over the alleged paper leak in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG, Congress leader Ajoy Kumar claimed that the National Testing Agency (NTA) has less than 25 permanent employees but was conducting over two dozen exams.

Kumar, the Congress in-charge for Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, alleged the Centre gambled with these competitive examinations by asking the NTA to conduct those.

"NTA has about a dozen employees on deputation from various departments and some contractual employees. Due to inadequate internal experts, NTA outsourced the paper setting, paper distribution and data security protocol work to private technical service providers and external experts," he claimed.

Kumar said NTA's functioning was akin to playing with the future of students.

NEET-UG was conducted by the NTA on May 5 with around 24 lakh candidates appearing in it for admission to MBBS courses. The results were announced on June 4, but they were followed by allegations of question paper leaks in states such as Bihar, besides other irregularities.