Naveen urges Modi to include Odia as medium of examination in NEET

22 December, Bhubaneswar

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inclusion of Odia as a medium of examination for the coming National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET).

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Patnaik said six regional languages besides Hindi and English have been included as medium of examination at NEET from the academic year 2017-18 but Odia language has been conspicuously left out.

Patnaik said this would put the students of Odisha who have studied in odia at a great disadvantage adding that the decision of the Union government will provide a competitive advantage for the students reading in six regional languages to the disadvantage of those from Odisha.

The Chief Minister said the Union Health and Family welfare ministry has not sought Odia as an option while taking the views of the state government on the medium of language to be adopted for the students of Odisha. He said this has created wide spread disadvantage among the students of Odisha appearing for the NEET in 2017-18 academic year and onwards and urged the Prime Minister to intervene.

Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Minisra and Minister for Technical Education and Training Sanjay Kumar Dasburma have described the exclusion of Odia as a medium of examination for the NEET as unfortunate.

Dasburma said he would soon write to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare to intervene in the matter. The Biju Chhatra Janata Dal, the students wing of the ruling BJD today held a demonstration to protest the exclusion of Odia in the NEET.

State Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha President T Tripathy however said the state government had written to the centre to conduct NEET in English when the latter sought the opinion of the government.