JEE Main and NEET to be held as per schedule in September: Officials
New Delhi: The Joint Entrance Examination (Main) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) will be conducted in September as scheduled, officials in the Ministry of Education said on Friday.
In a statement, the ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts these exams, said over 6.4 lakh candidates have downloaded their admit cards for the engineering entrance exam, JEE-Main.
It said 6,49,223 candidates have downloaded their admit cards, so far, against a total of 8,58,273.
"The NTA is happy to share with the JEE (Main) 2020 candidates that it has been able to offer the first choice of preference of centre cities to 99.07 per cent of the candidates," it said.
The statement said that "142 candidates have subsequently requested for a change in their allotted centre city due to various reasons, and the NTA is considering these requests positively.
It said as far as, NEET (UG)-2020 is concerned, again for the first time, candidates of this examination were given opportunity five times to change their choice of centre city.
A total of 95,000 candidates availed the same and they have been accommodated against their revised choices, the NTA said in the statement.
Ministry officials asserted that the JEE (Main) and the NEET exams will be conducted in September as scheduled.
There have been demands from several students and parents to further postpone the entrance exams in view of increasing coronavirus cases.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking postponement of JEE (Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations, which are scheduled to be conducted in September, amid spurt in number of COVID-19 cases, saying precious year of students "cannot be wasted" and life has to go on.
The NTA said it has made elaborate arrangements to sanitise centres before and after the examinations, and give fresh masks and hand gloves.
The NTA has also prepared a comprehensive advisory regarding COVID-19 for all functionaries for centre management, the testing agency said.
In order to solicit support of states for maintaining law and order, power supply, facilitation of movement of candidates and exam functionaries, crowd management in front of exam centres, we have also written to the state chief secretaries, DGPs, and DMs/ SPs of the concerned cities, the NTA said.
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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
