BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the telephone and requested him to postpone the NEET and JEE tests in view of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and the flood situation in the state.
“CM @Naveen_Odisha spoke to Prime Minister @narendramodi over telephone and requested him for postponement of #NEET and #JEE Main Exam in view of #COVID19 pandemic and severe flood situation in many parts of #Odisha,” CMO Odisha also tweeted.
The telephone call to the Prime Minister comes two days after the Chief Minister had written a letter in this regard to Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal.
In the letter, the Chief Minister had also requested the Union Minister to open examination centres in all the 30 districts of the state whenever the tests are held in future. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has opened examination centres for the tests in seven towns only.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday issued an advisory for students appearing for the JEE and NEET exams scheduled in September. JEE (Main) will be conducted for around 8.6 lakh students between September 1 and 6, while the NEET (UG) will be held across urban centres for about 15 lakh students on
September 13.
More than 50,000 students from Odisha are appearing in NEET, while around 40,000 will appear in the JEE (Main) examination.