NEET, JEE exam row: Over 17 lakh admit cards downloaded, shows students want exams, says Ramesh Pokhriyal

Over 17 lakh candidates have already downloaded their admit cards for JEE and NEET, and this shows that the students want the exams to be conducted at any cost, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said on Thursday. The minister’s comments come against the backdrop of a growing chorus for postponement of the medical and engineering entrance exams in view of spike in COVID-19 cases. “National Testing Agency (NTA) officials told me that over 7 lakh candidates have downloaded JEE-Main admit cards while over 10 lakh aspirants have downloaded NEET admit cards. This shows that students want the exams be held at any cost,” Pokhriyal said. “We have received mails from students and parents who are in favour of holding exams as they have been preparing for the exams from at least two three years,” he added. While the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is scheduled to be held on September 13, engineering entrance exam JEE-Main has been planned from September 1-6. Around 8.58 lakh candidates have registered for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)�Main and 15.97 lakh students have registered for NEET. These exams have already been deferred twice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The JEE-Mains was originally scheduled to be held from 7-11 April, but postponed to 18-23 July, NEET-UG was originally scheduled for 3 May, then pushed to 26 July. They were postponed again and are now scheduled in September.