PremiumNew Delhi: The union government Friday clarified that there is no going back, and medical and engineering entrance exams, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) will happen as scheduled in September.
The clarification comes on a day that saw a lot of noise, virtual protest and even a formal appeal to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi by BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy.
“In this background, it is intimated that, for the first time, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the candidates of JEE (Main) were provided opportunity five times to change their option of Centre City. A total of 661911 Candidates availed this opportunity and they were considered for centres based upon their latest (revised) option.
“Now the National Testing Agency (NTA) has also released the Admit Cards for the JEE (Main) Examinations scheduled from 01-09-2020 to 06-09-2020. 649223 Candidates have downloaded their Admit Cards so far, against a total number 858,273. 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% of the candidates. 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," NTA said.
In its statement Friday, NTA referred to the 17 August ruling of the Supreme Court that rejected pleas for deferment or cancellation of JEE and NEET.
The testing agency said it has made arrangement and have asked states to step up providing facilities while conveying “best wishes to all the candidates of these examinations".
“As far as, NEET (UG)-2020 is concerned, again for the first time, the Candidates of this examination were given opportunity five times to change their choice of Centre City. A total of 95000 Candidates availed the same and they have been accommodated against their revised choices. The NEET (UG)-2020 exam is now scheduled on 13-09-2020 and the total of 15,97,433 Candidates are registered for the same. The Admit Cards will be released shortly. Overall, 99.87% Candidates will be accommodated against their first preference of Centre City," the agency said.
In order to seek support of the states for maintaining law and order, power supply, facilitation of movement of candidates, and exam functionaries, crowd management in front of exam centres, etc., the NTA has also written to the state chief secretaries, director general of police of states, district magistrates of the concerned cities. “They have also been informed about the Advisory regarding COVID-19 for All Functionaries, and their support has been solicited," it said.
