Naveen seeks PM’s intervention for inclusion of Odia language in NEET

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to incorporate Odia language as a medium of examination in the prestigious National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG).

“I find that Odia language as a medium of examination for the students of Odisha who will be appearing for the said test has been conspicuously left out. This, as you can appreciate, will put students from Odisha, who have studied in Odia, at a great disadvantage,” said Patnaik in a letter to Modi.

He said the decision of center will provide a competitive advantage for the students reading in six regional languages to the disadvantage of those from Odisha.

Notably, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said that NEET-UG will be conducted in eight languages from the 2017-18 academic year. Besides Hindi and English, the exam will be conducted in six regional languages that include Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, and Tamil.

The Chief Minister said the Health ministry has not sought `Odia’ as an option while taking the views of the state government on the medium of language to be adopted for the students of Odisha.

“This has now created widespread resentment among the students of Odisha who will be appearing for the prestigious National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for the academic year 2017-18, and onwards,” said Patnaik.

He requested the Prime Minister to personally intervene in the matter for incorporating `Odia’ as a medium of examination for the ensuing NEET, in the larger interests of the students of the state.

While incorporating eight languages for the NEET-UG, the Health ministry said the candidate qualifying NEET would be eligible for All-India quota and other quotas under the state governments/Institutes irrespective of the medium in which the exam was taken by the candidate, subject to other eligibility criteria.

“NEET and its implementation in regional languages are the outcomes of the government’s commitment to bringing about transparency in medical education and removing malpractices,” said the ministry in a statement.