7 oppn CMs want NEET, JEE put off, will seek SC rethink

7 oppn CMs want NEET, JEE put off, will seek SC rethink

AAP & BJP Ally AIADMK Oppose Sept 1 Date Too

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  27.08.2020

Five states and a Union territory where Congress and its allies are in office, as well as West Bengal, will petition the Supreme Court against the holding of NEET and JEE examinations from September 1, flagging concerns of Covid infection risk and seeking a postponement till the situation improves.

In a virtual meeting chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, Congress CMs of Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry; CMs of Maharashtra and Jharkhand — where the party is in alliance — and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee felt while the SC okayed the holding of exams, it had in the past shown consideration for students in sensitive situations.

While Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal didn’t attend the meet, his government said the tests shouldn’t go ahead now.TN government, led by BJP ally AIADMK, has been asking for the exams to be deferred.

The 7 CMs interact with Cong chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday

Will go ahead with NEET, JEE: K’taka govt

Deputy CM CN Ashwath Narayan dismissed students’ appeal for postponement of NEET and JEE 2020 due to the pandemic and said, “Certain groups want seats to be allocated through an opaque system rather than merit. Some vested interests have been trying to disrupt NEET and JEE.” He said the Karnataka government will go ahead with NEET and JEE following the experience of conducting CET for 1.9 lakh students without a glitch. TNN

If Centre can’t go to SC, we can: Mamata

The debate on whether the entrance exams to engineering and medical colleges should be held or deferred has become a polarising one with the opposition also wading in. On social media, comments flew thick and fast, including allegations of hashtags and trends being manipulated. The discussion appeared to have split opinion even as the government and the National Testing Agency said arrangements have been made keeping the needs of social distancing and sanitation in mind. The Supreme Court had recently dismissed appeals against holding of the exams noting that “life should move on. We have to go ahead. Precious one year of students will go waste”.

Banerjee said she has written two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for the Centre to approach the Supreme Court to defer the exams. “If the government of India cannot go to court, we, as elected state governments, can approach the court on behalf of lakhs of students whose future is at stake,” she said. Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said, “I endorse Mamata Banerjee’s view that we should collectively approach the Supreme Court again.”

On Tuesday, Sonia Gandhi reached out to Banerjee and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray among other leaders to hold a meeting of opposition chief ministers.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren said, “Exams must happen but we are in too much hurry. In my state, we have very few centres. To accommodate these students, we will have to open all hotels and buses.”

The meeting was politically significant as the CMs of three key regional parties— Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and JMM (Hemant Soren)— and Congress (Ashok Gehlot, Amarinder Singh, Bhupesh Baghel, V Narayanasamy) decided to forge a common platform to fight “injustice” at the hands of BJP and also resolved to meet the President and PM.