Taking note of concerns flagged by Congress leader Karti P Chidambaram on the one-time exemption of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains 2023 eligibility criteria of 75 per cent, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has now taken note of it.
Pradhan, in his reply to the Lok Sabha MP, said that the letter had been sent to the concerned department for necessary action, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. Chidambaram had written to Pradhan twice urging him to relax the JEE Main 2023 eligibility criteria as a one-time measure for the upcoming year. He had said many students could not appear for the JEE Main exam last year due to technical glitches.
Letter to Congress leader
In his letter to Chidambaram, Pradhan said, "Thank you for your letter dated December 2, 2022 and December 15, 2022 regarding a one-time exemption to relax the eligibility criteria for all students appearing for the JEE Main and Advanced exams in 2023. The matter has been sent to the concerned department for necessary action," he added. Tweeting the letter, the Congress leader said, "The Education Minister @dpradhanbjp @EduMinOfIndia has responded to my letter requesting immediate relaxation in the eligibility criteria for #JEE2023. I hope the Govt will look into the requests and concerns of aggrieved students."
He had also raised the matter earlier in the parliament and outside too. In his letter to the minister on December 15, Chidambaram said, "As a follow-up to my letter dated December 2, 2022, and Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on December 8, I would like to draw your urgent attention to the concerns raised by students who appeared for the JEE-Mains and Advanced in 2022." The National Testing Agency (NTA) is expected to announce the dates for the JEE Examination 2023 shortly, but these aggrieved students have not been given any relief yet, he said.
Exam marred with glitches
He added that the JEE Main exam 2022, held in June-July, and the JEE Advanced exam in August were marred with many technical glitches. "Several students could not sit for the exam as their examination centre changed at the last moment, without prior intimation via SMS or email. Several candidates also experienced discrepancies in their response sheet, as well as errors in their result," he said in his letter. For students who graduated Class XII in 2020, it was their last attempt at both JEE Main and JEE Advanced, and for those that graduated in 2021, it was their last attempt at JEE Advanced," he said.
He urged the education minister to intervene and order a one-time exemption to relax the eligibility criteria for all students appearing for the JEE Mains and Advanced exams in 2023. "These bright young minds should not be denied the opportunity to study at leading engineering institutes across the country owing to issues that were completely outside their control," he said in his letter in December.
Earlier Madurai MP S Venkatesan urged the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan to make efforts to allow students from Tamil Nadu to apply for the exam.
