Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday strongly opposed the exclusion of Odia as a medium of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in this regard.
“Six regional languages, besides Hindi and English, have been included as medium of examination at the NEET from the academic year 2017-18. But Odia has been conspicuously left out. Students from Odisha, who have studied in Odia, will be at a great disadvantage. In fact, this decision will provide a competitive advantage for the students reading in six regional languages to the disadvantage of those from Odisha,” lamented Patnaik in a letter to the PM.
Mentioning that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has not sought an option from the State Government in this regard, the Chief Minister stated that the decision has now created wide spread resentment among the students of Odisha, who would be appearing for the prestigious test in 2017-18 and onwards.
“I am constrained to seek your personal intervention in the matter for incorporating Odia as a medium of examination for the ensuing NEET in the larger interests of the students of my State,” urged the CM.
Meanwhile, various organisations, including the Utkal Sammilani and the Odisha Rajya Shastriya Manyata Kriyanushtan Committee, have also resented non-inclusion of Odia in the NEET.
“Odia is one of the six classical languages and one of the 15 languages mentioned in the currency notes. It is disappointing that Odia, on basis of which Odisha had been formed 11 years before Independence, has been left out as a medium of NEET exam,” Sammilani’s Mancheswar Industrial Estate Branh president Dilip Dashsharma lamented and demanded that the Union Minister reconsider the decision and announce to add Odia as a medium of NEET test at the earliest.
The Odisha Rajya Shastriya Kriyanushtan Committee expressed unhappiness saying that non-taking of Odia as a medium of language for prestigious NEET test is a sheer injustice to all 5.5 crpre Odia people living in Odisha, negbouring States and outside the country.
“The committee had submitted memorandum five times to the Prime Minister and the Union Health Minister to conduct medical and dental examination in Odia for Odisha students. The Minister had assured to use Odia if the State Government sends a proposal in this regard. Now, it is not understood whether the State Government had submitted a proposal in this regard or the Union Health Minister has not accepted the State’s proposal,” said committee chief Dr Ram Chandra Khuntia, Seikh Matlub Ali and Kishore Jena at a Press meet here.
They demanded that the Chief Minister hold discussion with the Union Government and place a demand for conducing NEET in Odia.
A representative team of the committee would soon meet the Union Health Minister in this regard, they said.
In another development, BJD youth activists took out a motorcycle rally in the city in protest against non-inclusion of Odia in the test and submitted a memorandum, addressed to President Pranab Mukherhee, before Governor Dr SC Jamir.
Meanwhile, the BJP has passed the blame on the State Government saying that the latter had in writing suggested to the Centre to hold the NEET in English only.
“As Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik doesn’t know Odia, he has, by recommending to conduct NEET in English only, has belittled the language and is trying to impose the foreign language on Odia students,” said party’s Yuva Morcha president Tankadhar Tripathy.