Greta Thunberg voices support to calls for postponement of NEET, JEE exams
London: Swedish teen climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg on Tuesday threw her weight behind postponing the NEET and the JEE exams in India in view of the coronavirus, saying it is deeply unfair that students are asked to appear in the tests during the pandemic.
Several students and political leaders across the country, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and DMK President M K Stalin, have urged the central government to postpone the examination until the spread of the COVID-19 was brought under control.
Voicing her support to the calls for the deferment of the key national examinations, Thunberg took to Twitter, saying it is deeply unfair for the students.
It's deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid-19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to #PostponeJEE_NEETinCOVID, she said in a tweet.
Thunberg, 17, has become a leading voice for action on climate change, inspiring millions of students to join protests around the world. She was named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2019.
Two years ago, she started missing lessons most Fridays to protest outside the Swedish Parliament building, in what turned out to be the beginning of a huge environmental movement.
The chorus for postponing the various examinations, including NEET and JEE, grew louder on Sunday with over 4,000 students observing a day-long hunger strike to press for the demand in view of the rising COVID-19 cases.
The protest came on a day Gandhi said the government must listen to the 'mann ki baat' of students and arrive at "an acceptable solution" and his party demanded that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) be deferred.
According to the leftist All India Students Association (AISA), over 4,200 students observed the day-long hunger strike at their respective home demanding that CBSE compartment exams of Classes 10 and 12 be cancelled and entrance exams such as the UGC-NET, CLAT, NEET and JEE be postponed.
Aspirants appear in the JEE for admission into the premier engineering colleges and the NEET for undergraduate medical courses.
The JEE (Main) is scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6, while the JEE (Advanced) on September 27. The NEET will be held on September 13.
With 60,975 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, India's COVID-19 tally on Tuesday rose to 31,67,323, while recoveries surged to 24,04,585, pushing the recovery rate to 75.92 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The death toll climbed to 58,390 with 848 fatalities being reported in a span of 24-hours, it said.
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CT Ravi seeks impartial probe into Ballari clash, firing incident
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Chikkamagaluru: Legislative Council member C.T. Ravi on Friday called for an impartial and fair investigation into the banner-related clash and firing incident that occurred in Ballari.
Speaking to reporters in Chikkamagaluru, Ravi said the incident must be investigated thoroughly without prejudice or hatred influencing the probe. He said it was important to clearly establish who opened fire and who was responsible for the killing.
Referring to Valmiki Jayanti celebrations, Ravi said it was the BJP government that began officially observing the occasion, while the Congress, he alleged, had earlier denied the existence of Lord Ram and indirectly questioned the legacy of Valmiki. He recalled that during the Ram Setu case, the Congress had told the Supreme Court that Ram was a fictional character and not a historical figure.
On the Ballari incident, Ravi said registering cases or taking action with malicious intent was not appropriate. He added that whether banners were put up with permission or without it, forcibly removing them was wrong. If banners had been erected without permission, a complaint could have been filed instead.
Ravi also questioned how the government could justify people going near the residence of G. Janardhan Reddy to display strength. He said these circumstances suggested that the banner issue may only have been a pretext and that there could be other factors behind the violence.
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