Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone to postpone the medical and engineering entrance examinations- Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)- in view of the rising cases of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Patnaik over phone said Modi, “In view of the prevailing COVID pandemic situation in the country, it would be highly unsafe and perilous for the students to visit the test centres physically to appear in the tests.”
He also stated that many parts of the state are under the grip of floods due to which students may face great difficulty in appearing for the examination.
In view of all the above problems, Patnaik requested Modi to postpone the ensuing JEE (Main) and NEET, 2020 examinations scheduled to be held in first week of September, 2020 for the safety and security of the student.
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Earlier, Patnaik also urged Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to postpone the medical and engineering entrance examinations.
Notably, NTA has scheduled to conduct the JEE (Main) and NEET, 2020 test for admission into the technical and medical courses September 1 to 6 and September 13 respectively. However, NTA has opened examination centres for the said tests in seven townships of the state only.
More than 50,000 students from Odisha are slated to appear in NEET and around 40,000 in the JEE (Main) examinations.
PNN