Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to postpone the JEE and NEET examination scheduled to be held next month. In a letter to the Union minister, Mr Patnaik said in view of the prevailing COVID pandemic situation in the country, it would be highly unsafe and perilous for the students to visit the test centres physically to appear in these tests.

The Chief Minister requested the Union minister to postpone the examinations to a later date to ensure the safety and security of the students. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has scheduled to conduct the JEE (Main) and NEET, 2020 test for admission into the technical and medical courses in September. Patnaik said more than 50,000 students from Odisha are appearing in NEET and around 40,000 in JEE (Main) this year. In the context of the NTA opening examination centres for the tests in seven townships of the State, Patnaik said it would be highly unsafe and perilous for the students to visit the test centres physically to appear in these tests.

Besides, he said as frequent lock down shutdowns are being enforced by the concerned district administrations due to sudden escalation of the COVID positive case locally, the local transportation too gets disrupted. Further, Odisha, Patnaik said, has got vast tribal pockets having geographically inaccessible areas, far away from the urban centres of the State. As such, the students of these areas may be deprived of appearing in these tests, as they will have to travel long distances to come to the examination center In view of the above, the ensuing JEE (Main) and NEET examination scheduled to be held in September, 2020 may be postponed to a later date to ensure the safety and security of the students, the Chief Minister said.

He also urged the Union Minister to direct the NTA to open centres in all the 30 districts of the State so that students have to travel maximum 2-3 hours to reach the test centres and go back home the same day. This will also ensure maximum participation of the students in these tests, Patnaik said.