Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on August 25 wrote a letter to country Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank urging the postponement of JEE Main and NEET 2020 in the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases.

Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu Education Minister MK Stalin also joined Patnaik in the demurral raised. 

Also Read JEE Main Exam Day Instructions and COVID-19 Advisory

The letter reads, "Besides frequent lockdown or shutdown being enforced by the concerned district administrations due to sudden escalation of the COVID-19 positive cases, which has disrupted the local transportation as well." He also added that it would be very unsafe for 50,000 students appearing for JEE Main and NEET 2020 to appear for physical examinations.

For the ease in execution, Patnaik suggested opening examination centres in all 30 districts of the state. At present their examination centre is allotted in just 7 districts. 

Meanwhile, Mamta Banerjee has been active on twitter against the dissent going on.

So far along with Odisha, state governments of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi have shown interest in the postponement of JEE Main and NEET 2020. The protest against postponement is joined by big party leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Subramaniam Swamy, Manish Sisodia, etc. Read Details Here 

From the students front, the chorus grows louder with around 4000 students going on a day long hunger strike demanding the postment of exams amid the rising cases of COVID-19.

NTA however holds its ground and has denied the postponement requests. On August 24, NTA confirmed that JEE Main and NEET 2020 will be held as per the schedule. JEE Main is scheduled from September 1 to 6, 2020 and NEET 2020 is slated on September 13, 2020.

NTA said in a statement, "Supreme Court has also, inter alia, ordered that 'We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for postponing the exams in questions related to NEET UG-2020 and JEE Main 2020'."