Amid a huge uproar over the government’s decision to conduct the JEE Mains and NEET exams, lakhs of aspirants have downloaded their admit cards. Students, parents and political parties have been demanding the government to postpone the engineering and medical entrance tests in view of the coronavirus pandemic, however, the government has decided to go ahead with the decision to conduct the exams in September.

According to reports, over 14 lakh admit cards for JEE and NEET have already been downloaded so far. The National Testing Agency (NTA) had released NEET admit card on August 26, while for JEE Main it was made available earlier this month. The JEE Main exam is scheduled to be held from September 1 to 6, and NEET is scheduled for September 13. 

Around 9.53 lakh candidates have registered for JEE-Mains and 15.97 lakh students for NEET, news agency PTI reported.

Meanwhile, over 150 academicians from various universities in India and abroad have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the protests against holding of the exams. The academicians pointed out towards ‘politica agenda’ behind the protests and said that delaying the entrance tests will be wrong for the students.

“Youths and students are the future of the nation but in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, clouds of uncertainty have gathered over their careers too. There are lot of apprehensions about admission and classes which need to be resolved at the earliest. Some are trying to play with future of students to propel their own political agenda,” the letter stated.

The letter came on a day when Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi called a meeting of CMs to discuss the issue. During the virtual meeting, which was attended by seven chief ministers, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee called all the states to move the Supreme Court to defer the exams.

“This will be my request to all state govts, let us do it together, let us go to the Supreme Court and postpone the exam for the time being until and unless the situation allows students to sit for exam (JEE/NEET),” Mamata said.

Students have pointed out reasons such as difficulty in travelling in the absence of public transport, inability to arrange lodging since hotels and guest houses continue to remain shut and risk to already unwell students as reasons for seeking deferment of the exams.

Despite an overwhelming demand by students to cancel the exams, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has made it clear that the exams will not be postponed, and that the decision was taken amid constant pressure from the parents and students.