Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi Director, V Ramgopal Rao, has urged the States to come on board and provide transport facility to JEE aspirants who have to take the entrance test next month.
He also appealed to the students of the IITs, their alumni and people to come forward and help needy students reach their examination centres on time, saying IIT Delhi will "soon" create a web portal for such volunteers.
“State governments need to come on board. Local administration needs to arrange special buses and make special provisions for students taking these examinations,” Rao said in a Facebook post on Friday.
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This comes on the day when the six ministers of the Opposition-ruled States filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of its order which permitted the central government to conduct JEE-Main and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is set to conduct the JEE-Main from September 1 to September 6 for the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other engineering colleges. It will hold the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical programmes on September 13.
The joint admission board of the IITs is scheduled to conduct JEE-Advanced for all 23 IITs on September 27. Nearly 2 lakh top JEE-Main scorers would be allowed to take the entrance test for premier technical institutes.
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Calling upon the students of IITs, their alumni and “good Samaritans” to come forward and help JEE aspirants reach their examination centres, IIT-Delhi Director said in his post on Facebook, “As citizens, we need to stand up together in times of crisis and help each other.”
“If I am in a rural area and got a car, and if there is a poor student who needs to go to the examination center and cannot afford private transport, I would take the student to the examination hall. I would do it entirely free of cost. If I do not have time, I will be happy to support the student financially for private transport,” he said.
Rao said that IIT-Delhi will “soon” create a portal registration of the students of the IITs who would like to help JEE aspirants to be taking their exams.
“Can we, as fellow citizens, help those needy students by taking care of their logistics requirements to reach the exam centers?“ he appealed.
With the IIT-Delhi being the organising institute for the conduct of JEE-Advanced this year, the premier-technical institute's director assured of safety of the students during the entrance test.
Rao said faculty members and staff of all 23 IITs will get directly involved in the conduct of the JEE-Advanced. Many of them will be present “personally” in the examination centers.
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“The candidates' safety is also our safety. I will be personally visiting at least 4 JEE-Advanced centers myself in the Delhi NCR region to ensure smooth conduct of the examination,” he added.
JEE Advanced Chairman Sidharth Pandey, who is a faculty member in IIT Delhi, assured that social distancing measures will be implemented inside and outside the examination centres as per government guidelines to ensure health and safety of the candidates appearing for JEE-Advanced.
“Adequate measures will be taken for safety of all without compromising the high standards, sanctity, and fairness in conduct of our examination,” he added.
