The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday welcomed the Centre's decision to impose temporary restrictions on the Telegram platform in India ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21, saying the move was aimed at preventing fraud and misinformation targeting candidates.Students coming out of the centre after their NEET exam at a school in Chandigarh. (Keshav Singh/HT File Photo)In a statement, the NTA said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had directed a temporary restriction on access to Telegram in India until June 22, covering the examination period and its immediate aftermath. The ministry has also directed the platform to disable its message-editing feature in India until June 30.According to the NTA, the measures were taken in response to the organised use of Telegram by cheating rackets that allegedly attempted to defraud NEET candidates through false claims of access to examination papers. The agency said several Telegram channels had demanded money from candidates and their families in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper, which it described as fraudulent.The NTA said the message-editing restriction was intended to prevent the creation of fabricated "paper leak" evidence by allowing users to alter older messages while retaining original timestamps.The agency acknowledged that the restrictions would inconvenience legitimate Telegram users but said the measures were limited in duration and necessary to protect the integrity of the examination. It reiterated that the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination would be conducted as scheduled on June 21 and urged candidates to rely only on official NTA channels for updates.The NTA also thanked MeitY, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the Central Bureau of Investigation and state police forces for their role in tackling examination-related fraud.