At a meeting called by Sonia Gandhi & Mamata Banerjee on August 26, opposition chief ministers called for a united fight against the government's move to hold engineering & medical entrance exams in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. Chief Ministers decided to petition the Supreme Court again to request that the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) & the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) be deferred. Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh & Puducherry decided on the move. They noted that even though the Supreme Court had rejected such a request once, it was worth petitioning the court to reconsider in the interest of students. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the decision needs to be taken whether we want to fear or fight the government. Amarinder Singh said he had written to the PM three times to delay exams. Sonia Gandhi, fresh out of a crisis over a dissident letter by a group of party leaders, called the meeting in an attempt to evolve a united opposition response on the exams. Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) that conducts key entrance exams in the country has asked all states to help engineering and medical test candidates to move freely to exam centres amid the coronavirus crisis. The NTA's latest direction puts the onus on the states to ensure the exams go smoothly. NTA said the attempt is "to save one academic year.”
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