JEE, NEET to be held as planned: Centre

The Centre on Friday ruled out postponement of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) – and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG), even as student organisations renewed efforts for cancellation citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Testing Agency, which conducts both the examinations, pointed out that the Supreme Court had given a clear verdict on a bunch of petitions challenging the conduct of the exams in the middle of a pandemic.

The NTA cited the Supreme Court judgement that noted that the examinations were going to be held with due precaution and it was not going to be postponed.

“NTA conveys its best wishes to all the candidates of these examinations,” the statement said.

It said the admit cards have been issued to 8,58,273 candidates for the JEE (Main) and 6,49,223 students have so far downloaded their admit cards.

The NTA said 6,61,911 students had requested a change in the centre city, which has been accepted. As many as 142 students had further requested a change in the centre city, which was being considered positively.

The NTA said adequate preparations have been made for the JEE (Main) scheduled to be held between September 1 and 6 and the NEET to be held on September 13.

In line with the centre's guidelines on hygiene protocols during the pandemic, elaborate arrangements have been made to sanitise exam centres before and after each shift. Fresh face masks will be handed out to all students.

Similarly, students appearing for the NEET (undergraduate) exam were also given the option to change their centres and around 95,000 candidates had availed this opportunity.

Of the total 15,97,433 candidates for this exam, 99.87% were given their preferred choice of cities in which to appear for the exam.