Oppn CMs join hands against holding NEET
TO MOVE SC Virtual meet called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi
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The atmosphere is not conducive for holding exams physically…I’ve asked the state advocate general to coordinate with opposition-ruled states for filing a collective review petition in the SC. CAPT AMARINDER SINGH,
Punjab CM
NEWDELHI: Chief ministers of several Opposition-ruled states on Wednesday decided to challenge the Centre over concerns of their rights being undermined, even as demands surfaced at a virtual meet that they collectively move the Supreme Court against the Union government’s plan to hold the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering colleges in September.
At the virtual meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the issues of NEET and JEE, and Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation in the midst of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, chief ministers of West Bengal (Mamata Banerjee), Maharashtra (Uddhav Thackeray), Jharkhand (Hemant Soren), Punjab (Captain Amarinder Singh),
Rajasthan (Ashok Gehlot), Chhattisgarh (Bhupesh Baghel) and Puducherry (V Narayanasamy) stressed the need to protect federalism, saying that all powers were now concentrated in just one place.
“Problems of students and examinations are being dealt with very uncaringly,” the Congress chief said at the meeting. The West Bengal chief minister urged all CMs to together move the Supreme Court for postponing the NEET and JEE as she said students were not prepared to take the tests.
Separately, Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia reiterated his demand that the exams be postponed and the central government work on alternative methods for selecting students. “They (Centre) are saying protocols will be followed. Following the same protocols that the Centre wants 28 lakh students to follow, lakhs of Indians have tested positive,” he said.
The Congress did not invite the chief ministers of Odisha (Naveen Patnaik), Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal), Andhra Pradesh (YS Jaganmohan Reddy), Telangana (K Chandrashekhar Rao) and Kerala (Pinarayi Vijayan) to the meeting.