Postpone JEE Main And NEET 2020: Odisha Chief Minister To Prime Minister Modi

New Delhi:

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to postpone the JEE Main 2020 And NEET 2020 exams scheduled in September. Politicians across the country have now joined students who have been protesting against the conduct of JEE Main and NEET exams amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Hon'ble CM Shri. Naveen Patnaik @CMO_Odisha @Naveen_Odisha spoke to Hon'ble PM Shri. Narendra Modi @PMOIndia @narendramodi and requested him for postponement of NEET and JEE in view of COVID situation and also as many parts of Odisha are in the grip of floods, a social media post by Biju Janata Dal Spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.

Hon'ble CM Shri. Naveen Patnaik @CMO_Odisha @Naveen_Odisha spoke to Hon'ble PM Shri. Narendra Modi @PMOIndia @narendramodi and requested him for postponement of NEET and JEE in view of COVID situation and also as many parts of Odisha are in the grip of floods.

— Dr. Sasmit Patra I ଡ଼ଃ ସସ୍ମିତ ପାତ୍ର (@sasmitpatra) August 27, 2020

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik previously wrote to Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ demanding postponement of NEET 2020 and JEE Main 2020 exams.

“In view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country, it would be highly unsafe and perilous for the students to appear in these tests,” Mr Patnaik said.

Over 50,000 aspirants from Odisha for the NEET and JEE (Main) this year. Around 40,000 candidates from the state have registered for JEE Main 2020.

Seven chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states on Wednesday decided to jointly move the Supreme Court against the decision of conducting JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020 in September.

Parties like the DMK and the AAP too joined the growing chorus against the holding of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a time when COVID-19 cases were rising.

At a meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a range of issues ahead of Monsoon Session of Parliament, the seven chief ministers agreed to the need for filing a review petition urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent order rejecting the postponement of the competitive exams, sources said.

Among the chief ministres who attended the meeting were West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray, who is heading the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, Punjab's Amarinder Singh (Congress), Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (JMM), Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot (Congress), Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel (Congress)and Puducherry's V Narayanasamy (Congress)