NTA and the government had to face a lot of embarrassment in the entire country due to paper leak during NEET exam in May. Learning from that experience, the Central Government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) are being very careful this time. Tight security arrangements have been made for the NEET re-examination to be held on June 21, 2026—arrangements never seen before in the history of competitive examinations in India.
According to the latest report, just five days before the examination, the work of delivering sealed question papers to state capitals and important centers was started on a war footing. However, this time the papers are not being left to the usual courier services, private vendors or the general postal network—these were the same channels that previously posed the highest risk of paper leakage. Let us know who is protecting the papers and where they are being kept after reaching the states.
**IAF’s C-17 Globemaster and Mi-17 helicopters deployed**
This time the first and strongest layer of security has been created in the sky. Following a high-level meeting between the Defense and Education Ministries, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been deployed for the first time to deliver the exam material. The packets containing confidential question papers are being directly delivered to 18 important centers across the country (like Patna, Jaipur etc.) by IAF’s massive C-17 Globemaster aircraft and Mi-17 helicopters.
**Chain of Custody**
The sole purpose of involving the Air Force in this mission is to completely eliminate all the ‘handling points’ or middlemen that previously existed between the printing presses and the main state centres. It is impossible for any unauthorized person en route to access this ‘VIP cargo’.
**Security of commandos and paramilitary forces**
As soon as the Air Force planes land at state capitals or fixed airbases with these sealed boxes, the country’s most trusted security forces take over the responsibility of ground security. A multi-layered security blanket has been created; CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel keep these papers under their surveillance while taking them from airports and airbases to the main storage centres. Instead of being kept in the rooms of normal government offices, these question papers are being kept locked in high-tech strong rooms and impenetrable safes—which are guarded 24/7 by military or paramilitary forces. This new security system is not limited to just delivering the papers to the centres; In fact, when students will sit in the examination hall on June 21, the security environment will be like a military cantonment.
For this, around 5,00,000 security personnel are being deployed at examination centres, transportation hubs and storage units across the country. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) surveillance, more than 1,00,000 CCTV cameras installed across all centers are being linked to the control rooms of the Central Intelligence Agencies (IB and CBI) for real-time monitoring with the help of AI-enabled facial recognition technology.
