JEE NEET 2020: Greta Thunberg, Naveen Patnaik, Mamata Banerjee Join Call To Postpone Exams Amid Covid-19 Crisis

JEE NEET 2020: Activist Greta Thunberg, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee have supported the demand to postpone competitive exams amid Coronavirus crisis.

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New Delhi: Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has come out in support of students demanding postponement of the nationwide JEE NEET 2020 exams.  The teenager popularly-known for her "How dare you" speech at the UN Climate Action Summit took to Twitter and wrote:

"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 Postpone JEE NEET in COVID."

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

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 25, 2020

Earlier today, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote a letter to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. "It would be unsafe for students to visit test centers physically amid Covid-19 for JEE (Main) & NEET tests. Therefore, it is requested that exams scheduled to be held in September may be postponed to a later date," - the Odisha CM stated.

(Image Courtesy: ANI)

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has also written a letter to PM Narendra Modi, asking the Central government to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order to hold NEET and JEE examinations "so that students are free from mental agony and mental disaster".

(Image Courtesy: ANI)

Previously, Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy came out in support of students - asking the union government to listen to their plight. Sisodia stated that unprecedented steps need to be taken in the times of the unprecedented Covid-19 Crisis. Subramanian Swamy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the matter, listing 13 reasons for the postponement of competitive exams this year considering the Coronavirus situation. The government had confirmed on August 21, that there will be no further delay in the NEET and JEE exams and that it will be held in September according to the revised schedule. Whether the central government will budge to these nationwide demands remains to be seen. WATCH | Super 40: Top news stories of the day