Over 1 lakh respond to Jharkhand CM’s Twitter poll on NEET-JEE exams

Over 1.7 lakh people have responded so far to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s call on Twitter, seeking students’ opinion on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Exams (JEE)-Main exams. More than 45,000 students are likely to participate in the upcoming exams across 40 centres in five cities.

Chief minister Soren took to Twitter last night and posted a poll, calling students’ to share their opinion over the NEET-JEE exams which are scheduled in September amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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“I want to particularly ask and seek feedback from all my young engineer and doctor friends. Will students face huge difficulties if #JEENEET exams are postponed?” Soren had tweeted.

People responded to the CM’s call, which seeks vote on any of three options - ‘Yes, No and Don’t Know’. The voting will come to an end on Sunday late night.

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In another tweet, the CM said, “Tonight I’m worried & tensed as India continues to report over 75,000 Covid-19 cases every single day. Yet our union education minister @DrRPNishank ji (Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank) is not even remotely concerned about safety & health concerns of lakhs of students made to write #JEENEET exams in September.”

Earlier, the chief minister had written to the union education minister demanding postponement of the examinations.

When the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya was asked if this exercise would help in postponing the exams, he said, “Let the exercise get completed. Thereafter, we will say on it.”

Reacting on the development, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said, “This is actually unprecedented. A chief minister is holding a referendum on the Supreme Court’s earlier judgment. This is being conducted at a time when the state has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court and hearing of which is pending.”

Shahdeo said, “I think the chief minister should put all his energy to conduct the examination smoothly and in a healthy manner instead of making a strategy to spoil students’ career.”

The National Testing Authority, the nodal body to conduct the examinations, and the central government are supposed to hold JEE-Main and NEET between September 1 and 6 and on September 13, respectively. JEE-Main and NEET are for undergraduate engineering and medical aspirants, respectively.

From Jharkhand, more than 45,000 students would appear for both the examinations. Around 23,000 students would write the JEE-Main, while 22,000 would appear for NEET examinations. The exams will be conducted at 40 centres spread across five cites-Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Hazaribag and Jamshedpur. Ranchi has a maximum of 25 centres. The district administrations of respective cities have begun preparations to conduct free and fair examinations. The administration officials in Ranchi said all Covid-19 protocol including mask, social distancing and sanitization would be followed strictly.

In view of the examinations, the Jharkhand government has also allowed operation of intra-state bus service, hotel and restaurants from September 1 under the fourth phase of ‘unlock’.