Odisha CM seeks postponement of JEE, NEET exams

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday requested the Centre for the postponement of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main) and National Eligibility Entrance Exam (NEET) scheduled to be held in September.

Patnaik, in a letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nisank, urged to cancel the entrance test in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I would like to say that 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 these tests,” said the Chief Minister.

Besides, as frequent lockdown/shutdown is being enforced by the concerned district administrations due to sudden escalation of the COVID positive case locally, the local transportation too gets disrupted, he added.

He also informed that Odisha has got vast tribal pockets having geographically inaccessible areas, far away from the urban centres in the State.

Students of the area may be deprived of apprearing in these tests, as they will have to travel long distances to come to the examination centres, he added.

Naveen suggested that examination centres be opened in all 30 districts of Odisha instead of just seven.