Sonia Gandhi to Hold Meetings with 7 CMs over NEET, JEE

Congress President Sonia Gandhi will hold a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of seven states on Wednesday to discuss the issues related to GST collection, the schedule of JEE and NEET examinations and financial loss incurred by the states because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The chief ministers who will join the virtual meeting to be held at 2.30 pm today are Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, V Narayanasamy, Puducherry, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday said that the NEET and JEE examinations will be held as per schedule on September amid the coronavirus pandemic for which protests erupted among the students to cancel the examination.

Swedish teen climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg also threw her weight behind postponing the exams on Tuesday in view of the pandemic.

Thunberg in a tweet said, "It's deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid-19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to #PostponeJEE_NEETinCOVID."

Several opposition leaders in India including Congress' Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, DMK President MK Stalin and Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia also demanded to postpone the examination.

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 the precious year of students "cannot be wasted" and life has to go on.