Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday with chief ministers of Congress-ruled states and their counterparts of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand on the issues related to Goods and Services Tax dues of states and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) (Main) and The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exams.
The Goods and Services Tax revenue collections in July totalled Rs 87,422 crore, 14 per cent less than in the past year as economic activities slowed down due to COVID-19 countrywide lockdown, the Union finance ministry said on August 1.
The National Testing Agency announced that the JEE (Main) will be held from September 1 to 6 and NEET (UG) on September 13 after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking the postponement of the NEET and JEE.
Many ministers have been opposing the Centre's decision to conduct the exams.
Earlier in the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Central government to consider filing a review petition in the Supreme Court over the dates of NEET and JEE examinations.
"I would request you to kindly appreciate the sensitivity of the matter and consider taking necessary action for postponing these examinations until the public health situation becomes conducive again," Banerjee said.
She referred to her letter written earlier.
"I had requested you to kindly postpone NEET and JEE Examinations in September 2020. I have explained in the letter that the examinations will pose grave health risks to the examinees," she said.
Banerjee said she had also requested for postponement all terminal examinations in universities/colleges across the country.
"I have been consistently arguing that the current pandemic situation is an unprecedented crisis in the country and we should not put any life in jeopardy during this pandemic period by taking such decisions. Today our government has received a letter from the National Testing Agency for conducting the JEE/NEET examinations starting from September 1, 2020. We are really worried and concerned," she added.
Banerjee said the Supreme Court has given a verdict on the holding of JEE/NEET examinations and the central government has been issuing instructions to go ahead with it accordingly.
"However, I would like to request for your intervention and to consider the central government making an appeal to the apex court to review its decision in the interest of the student community, so that they are free from mental agony and mental disaster," she said.
"Such intervention is very much essential in the larger interest of students to facilitate creating a situation whereby the students will neither be subjected to grave health risk nor they will be facing a career risk," she added.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday reiterated his demand that medical and engineering entrance exams NEET and JEE be postponed and the Central government work on alternative methods for selecting students.
"They (Centre) are saying protocols will be followed. Following the same protocols that the Centre wants 28 lakh students to follow, lakhs of Indians have tested positive," Sisodia told reporters.
He said the Union home minister tested positive for coronavirus despite staying in a very safe environment, and that many other leaders including Delhi health minister have also contracted the contagious disease.
"So many top leaders have got infected with COVID-19 despite taking all precautions. So, how can we take the risk of sending 28 lakh students to exam centre and be assured that they will not be infected," Sisodia asked.
He said the Central government should immediately postpone the exams and work on "alternative methods" of admission.
"I appeal to the government to not be adamant on admission only through these exams. We are not at all saying that the year be declared as a zero academic year. We are not in favour of admitting students just like that as we will need quality doctors and engineers but banking upon only a three hour exam and expecting it to work like a magic wand in identifying talent, is a very conservative thought," he added.
On Tuesday, Swedish teen climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg also threw her weight behind postponing the exams in view of the pandemic.
Several opposition leaders in India including Congress's Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham president M K Stalin have demanded the exams be postponed.
Sisodia had on Saturday also appealed the Centre to postpone or cancel the exams.
The Supreme Court had last week dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the two exams amid a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases, saying a "precious" academic year of students "cannot be wasted" and life has to go on.
While a total of 9.53 lakh candidates have registered for JEE-Mains, 15.97 lakh students have registered for NEET.
-- PTI
