Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal states students want exams; lakhs of admit cards downloaded

Amidst the protests over the holding of the JEE and the NEET examinations, over 17 lakhs students out of nearly 25 lakh students have already downloaded admit cards for the medical and engineering entrance exams.

This resulted in Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank stating the numbers prove that the students want the examinations to be conducted adding that ministry has been receiving e-mails from students and parents stating that the examinations should not be postponed.

Moreover, the Education Minister revealed that about 85 per cent of the students appearing for the exams had already downloaded the admit cards and were ready to sit for their tests after much preparation. To be sure, he upheld that the exams will go on as currently scheduled.

Earlier, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi held a meeting in order to discuss the issues regarding the examinations at large agreeing to the need for filing a review petition urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent order rejecting the postponement of the competitive exams.

The Chief Ministers who were present in the meeting were Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray, who is heading the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Punjab's Amarinder Singh (Congress), Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (JMM), Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot (Congress), Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel (Congress) and Puducherry's V Narayanasamy (Congress).