NEW DELHI, MAY 16 : In the aftermath of the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026, held on May 3, the government on Saturday appointed two Joint Directors and two Joint Secretaries to the National Testing Agency (NTA) with immediate effect. The move is expected to strengthen the agency, which is dominated by outsourced employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notably, the re-exam for NEET-UG 2026 will be held on June 21 and the appointments appear aimed at ensuring its smooth conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two separate orders issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had approved the appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anuja Bapat, an Indian Statistical Service officer of the 1998 batch, and Ruchita Vij, an Indian Revenue Service officer of the 2004 batch, have been appointed as Joint Secretaries. The appointments are for a tenure of five years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An order said two vacant posts at the Deputy Secretary\/Director level had been upgraded for an initial period of two years for the purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newly appointed Joint Directors are Akash Jain, a 2013-batch IRS officer, on a \u201clateral shift\u201d basis until December 4, 2029, or until further orders, and Aditya Rajendra Bhojgadhiya, a 2013-batch officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, until May 16, 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The seven-member committee headed by K Radhakrishnan, which analysed the reasons behind the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak, had recommended the hiring of permanent staff within the NTA to bring in greater accountability. A parliamentary panel, in December 2025, had also called for strengthening the organisation internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following these recommendations, the government created 16 new posts, but only three joint directors have been recruited so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-PTI<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW DELHI, MAY 16 : In the aftermath of the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026, held on May 3, the government on Saturday appointed two Joint Directors and two Joint Secretaries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348],"tags":[28391,63,28394,28395],"class_list":["post-151619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-neet-paper-leak","tag-new-delhi","tag-nta-appoints-two-joint-directors","tag-two-joint-secretaries-amid-neet-ug-paper-leak-row"],"yoast_head":"\n