Akhilesh Yadav 'reveals' why Centre renamed HRD Ministry amid JEE-NEET row

Amid growing demand for postponement of the medical and engineering entrance exams in view of a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav took a veiled jibe at the Central Government. Taking to Twitter on Friday, Akhilesh in a tweet in Hindi said the BJP which is adamant on conducting the JEE, NEET exam, has now revealed why it changed the name of 'Ministry of Human Resources and Development'.

'Human Resource Ministry lacks Humanity'

Sharing photos of his party men protesting against the exams, he wrote it is because the Ministry's attitude towards education and learners lacks 'Humanity'.

Last month, the Cabinet had approved renaming the Human Resources Development(HRD) Ministry back as Education Ministry. The Ministry of Education was renamed as the HRD ministry in 1985 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The next year the National Education Policy (NEP) was introduced. PV Narasimha Rao, also a former premier, was the first HRD minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet.

'Students want the exams to be held'

Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday said that 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.

"National Testing Agency (NTA) officials told me that over seven lakh candidates have downloaded the JEE-Main admit cards while over 10 lakh aspirants have downloaded the NEET admit cards. This shows that the students want the exams to be held at any cost," Pokhriyal said.

"We have received emails from students and parents who are in favour of holding the exams, as they have been preparing for the exams for at least two to three years. The Supreme Court too opined that a full academic year cannot be wasted. After two deferments, the exam dates have been finalised," he added.

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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 the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main and 15.97 lakh have registered for the NEET. The exams have been deferred twice in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

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The JEE-Mains was originally scheduled to be held from April 7-11 but was postponed to July 18-23. The NEET-UG was originally scheduled for May 3 but was pushed to July 26. Subsequently, the exams were postponed again and are now scheduled in September.

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The Congress and various other opposition parties have demanded that the examinations be deferred due to the pandemic and floods in certain parts of the country, even as the government has made it clear that the tests will be held according to the schedule and with due precautions. Last week, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the two exams amid a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, saying a "precious" academic year of students "cannot be wasted" and that life has to go on.

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(with PTI inputs)