Protest against NEET 2020 in UP: Student wing members lathi-charged by Police

Lucknow - Police on Monday lathi-charged and detained Samajwadi Party student wing members protesting near the Raj Bhavan here against conducting the NEET and JEE Main amid the Covid-19 pandemic, police said.

Carrying placards with messages such as 'India united to postpone JEE and NEET', 'Satyagrah against exams during Covid-19' and 'Stop atrocities against students', the party workers were marching towards the Raj Bhavan when they were stopped by police.

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As they insisted to move ahead, police used lathi-charge to disperse them, and later detained them, a senior police officer said.

Samajwadi Party national spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said, "Police lathi-charged peaceful protestors."

Other party leaders said holding the medical entrance exam NEET and engineering entrance exam JEE Main amid a raging pandemic is not in the interest of students. "It should be postponed till the situation improves," said one of them.

While the engineering entrance exam JEE Main has been planned from September 1 to September 6, the NEET is scheduled to be held on September 13.

Earlier, on August 27, Samajwadi Party workers were lathi-charged by police when they were marching towards the Raj Bhavan in protest against the Centre's decision to hold these exams.

Party president Akhilesh Yadav had last week written an open letter against holding the two exams as coronavirus cases in the country are rising.

He had said the BJP-led government at the Centre is unnecessarily putting the students' health at risk.

"Funny and illogical things are being spread by the BJP which says when people can come out for other work, why can't they take exams? It has forgotten that people are moving out in compulsion and even those who want to stay at home to save themselves are now being forced to come out of their homes in the name of examination," Yadav had said in the letter.

The SP chief had asked who will be responsible if students contract the infection. He claimed the saffron party is only concerned about people who vote for it.

"It appears that the BJP has come to know that youths facing unemployment would no longer vote for them and so, it is acting in a revengeful manner against them and their guardians," Yadav had alleged.

Supporting the demand for postponement of NEET and JEE examinations, seven non-BJP chief ministers had decided to jointly move the Supreme Court on the issue.

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