Updated: August 29, 2020 8:32:54 am
Members of TMC’s student wing hold a protest in Kolkata on Friday against the JEE and NEET exam schedule. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
Six ministers from Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Friday moved to the Supreme Court and requested the revision of its order of August 17 allowing the conduct of entrance examinations to NEET (UG) and JEE (Mains ).
The statement referred to the increase in Covid-19 cases in the country and said that if the order of August 17 is not reviewed, “serious and irreparable damages would affect the student community.” The petitioners said that “not only will the health, welfare and safety of students / candidates taking the NEET / JEE exams be in jeopardy, but public health in general will also be in serious jeopardy …”
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The petitioners are Moloy Ghatak (Minister of West Bengal), Rameshwar Oraon (Jharkhand), Raghu Sharma (Rajasthan), Amarjeet Bhagat (Chhattisgarh), Balbir Singh Sidhu (Punjab) and Uday Ravindra Samant (Maharashtra).
The petition, filed through attorney Sunil Fernandes, indicated that the National Testing Agency (NTA) had notified that NEET (UG) will take place on September 13 and JEE (Red) from September 1 to 6.
The statement said that according to the NTA, approximately 9.53 lakh and 15.97 lakh of students have registered for JEE (Mains) and NEET (UG), respectively. “This means that in total 25 lakh students would sit for these two exams,” the petition said. “As of August 27, India has more than 3.31 million [more than 33 lakh] COVID-19 cases. We are currently in third position on this unenviable list after the United States (5.79 million cases) and Brazil (3.72 million) and on our way to being the number one nation on this list. “
While there are 660 test centers for JEE, approximately 1,443 students per center, there are 3,843 centers for NEET, or approximately 415 students per center, the petitioners noted. “Such a large movement of people will ipso facto prove to be a serious health hazard and will completely defeat the twin solutions we currently have to combat Covid-19, that is, social distancing and the avoidance of large public gatherings.” they said, urging the court to postpone the entrance exams.
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The statement read: “Having at least one center per district would have minimized interdistrict travel by students and therefore reduced the chances of the spread of Covid-19.”
The petitioners said: “The mere fact that hundreds of thousands of students have registered for the exam is not indicative of their consent or willingness or desire to attend physical examinations, as no student would want to waive the exam, if it is performed and respondents are forcing students to put their lives and health at risk by taking these tests. “
In a situation, the plea said, “where there is absolutely no classroom teaching, the Union Government’s decision to conduct examinations on such a massive scale reveals the non-application of the mind and is an unreasonable, arbitrary exercise of power. and capricious “.
The petitioners stated that “they do not wish to make any value judgment or political criticism of the Union Government at this time, but the truth is that there has been an exponential increase in both the positive cases of Covid-19 and the deaths / mortality derived from the Covid-19 from April, the date on which these examinations were originally scheduled, until August, when the Government of the Union decided to carry out said examinations “.
“The Covid-19 graph shows a continuous upward movement and the ‘curve’ has not flattened for the Government to undertake such a massive exercise,” the petition indicates. He said that schools and colleges continue to be closed despite the various unblocking phases and that “there is no rational link between the object of the exams and the purpose to be achieved.”
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The six ministers stated that the Center had “sufficient time to make full preparations” for the safe and successful conduct of the examinations. “However,” they argued, “the intervening months from April to September were characterized by inaction, confusion, lethargy and inertia … now the Union Government has suddenly woken up to realize that its inertia is going to cost billions of students their academic year and therefore, as a knee-jerk reaction … has hastily and randomly set exam dates ”.
The petitioners described it as a remedy that “will be worse than the disease itself.”
The allegation said that postponing the exams for two months would give the government valuable time to “put in place an adequate mechanism in consultation with state governments, to ensure a smoother and safer conduct of the exams.”
The petition also pointed to health problems for the students, saying that “even if not, with recent evidence and information that the virus is now supposedly airborne, conducting a physical exam of such magnitude can have disastrous consequences.” .
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The petition says there have been cases where an increase in cases has been reported after offline exams were conducted.
The process of getting to the test center itself can be a major source of infection, and candidates can become vectors that carry the virus home, he said.
The petitioners said: “The mere fact that hundreds of thousands of students have registered for the exam is not indicative of their consent or willingness or desire to attend physical examinations, as no student would want to waive the exam, if it is performed and respondents are forcing students to put their lives and health at risk by taking these tests. “
They said, “If the Union / NTA government decides to take the exams, then students are left with no effective option but to register and sit for the exam at great personal risk.”
Oppn Parties Slam Center: Hear from the students
After approaching the Supreme Court, four opposition parties led by Congress attacked the BJP-led central government on Friday, accusing it of being “stubborn” in taking the NEET and JEE exams.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi said the government has been incompetent. He and the president of Congress, Sonia Gandhi, asked the government to listen to the students.
Please listen to them. Have a conversation and resolve this issue peacefully, ”he said.
At a joint press conference, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (JMM), Congressional Leader Abhishek Singhvi, Trinamool Congress Deputy Derek O Brien, and Maharashtra Higher Education Minister Uday Samant ( Shiv Sena), criticized the Center for the issue.
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