NSUI Telangana president and Member Legislative Council Venkat Balmoori addressing media along with representative of students unions and youth organisations on NEET fiasco, in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G
A collective of students and youth rights activists in the State arrived at a consensus on Monday, to mobilise students affected by the irregularities in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) conducted by National Testing Agency and demand justice for them.
“The demand is to conduct a re-test for all candidates. And, a Supreme Court judge must inquire into this whole scam,” MLC and National Students’ Union of India Telangana president Balmoori Venkat said.
Leading a dozen organisations on Monday, Mr. Venkat said the Bharatiya Janata Party, and its ministers from Telangana — G. Kishan Reddy (Coal and Mines) and Bandi Sanjay Kumar (MoS Home Affairs) — have remained insensitive to the whole episode.
Mr. Pradeep of Progressive Youth League said BJP leaders were worried about illegal transport of cattle, but not empathetic to 24 lakh students and their families affected by NEET (UG).
Dharmendra of All India Youth Federation’s Dharmendra and Mahesh of the Progressive Democratic Students Union demanded that the government immediately dismiss NTA Director General Subodh Kumar Singh. They observed that the ‘NEET scam’ not only affected the student and unemployed community, but it was in general “a scam against the poor”.
“Education was the only treasure that cannot be stolen, but BJP proved it otherwise,” NSUI’s Chandana Reddy said.
Organisations which came together included Students’ Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India, Vidyarthi Jana Samithi, Yuva Jana Shakti, among others.
In a resolution passed by them, the leaders said the other demands are: a public apology by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, abolition of NTA, decentralisation of NEET and to allow States to conduct the entrance tests, and transparency and justice for the affected students.
The collective also gave a call for a students’ rally on Tuesday, to protest irregularities in NEET (UG) and on other demands raised by them. The rally is scheduled to start at Himayathnagar at 10 a.m. and proceed till the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar circle via Liberty junction.
