Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday supported the appeal of students and urged government to pay heed to their concerns and arrive at a solution.
The tweet by Gandhi comes at a time when the government has decided to conduct the JEE, NEET exams despite the rise in coronavirus cases across the country.
Students have been making pleas to change exam dates citing difficulties and mental pressure to attend the exam with existing restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The student community has been trending hasttags across various socia media platforms.
He said: "GOI must listen to the #StudentsKeMannKiBaat about NEET, JEE exams and arrive at an acceptable solution."
Earlier, on Friday, making it clear that it won't further postpone competitive examinations, the government said that over 75 % students who had registered for the Joint Entrance Examination (Main), scheduled between September 1 and 6, have already downloaded their admit cards.
On August 17, Supreme Court refused to defer the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and JEE (Main) Exams.“Life cannot be stopped. We have to move ahead with all safeguards,” said a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
JEE is scheduled from September 1 to 6, while the NEET is slated for Sept 13.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting that the exams be deferred, while Kapil Sibal said these needed to be postponed.
In a tweet in Hindi, Priyanka Gandhi said, "The COVID-19 situation in the country is yet to normalise. In such a situation, if students who are taking NEET and JEE, and their parents have raised concerns, then these should be taken into consideration by the government and those conducting these exams."
Chowdhury requested PM Modi to intervene and postpone the exams.
"The aspirants of national examination are under tremendous mental pressure as to how they could be remain immune to the infection while attending the examination physically. Right at this pandemic situation their concerns should be given due consideration. The spectre of corona will be haunting the students during the examination period stretching from September 1 to 6," he said in his letter.
Chowdhury said when the country is witnessing a spike of COVID-19 infection with single-day rise of 70,000 cases, "I think it is absolutely necessary to review the date of exam because approximately 25 lakh students are supposed to participate in the exam, hence I thought it prudent to knock the door of wisdom of Prime Minister of India"
"Your sagacious intervention may bring about the relief of those anxious aspirants. My suggestion to you Prime Minister is that the examination could be deferred for a certain period till the situation is stable," he said.
Former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal also tweeted, "Stop this injustice. NEET-JEE Entrance Exams. Elitist approach. The poor discriminated. Digital divide. Jeopardising lives. Reaching exam sites hazardous. Poor connectivity and more. Only just , fair and sensible solution is to postpone: NEET, JEE."
(With ENS, PTI inputs)