Former chief minister Omar Abdullah today alleged the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is against the spirit of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and called out PDP-BJP government’s “lack of seriousness” in taking timely action to prevent its extension to the state.
“NEET is against the interests of our students and clearly goes against the spirit and essence of J-K’s special status. The state government has shown a stunning sense of irresponsibility and lack of seriousness in dealing with this issue. This has created apprehension and anxiety in the minds of our students when they should be solely focused on their academic pursuits and upcoming entrance examinations,” Mr Abdullah said.
The National Conference working president was addressing a party workers’ convention in his constituency of Beerwah in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
He said such crucial issues deserve prompt, timely and undivided attention of the Chief Minister as even the “minutest callousness” has the potential of having far reaching political implications in a state like Jammu and Kashmir.
“Indolence and irresponsibility have become the two distinct traits of the PDP-BJP government and its top-level leadership,” he said.
Mr Abdullah said that despite being aware of how NEET was against “the interests of our students” and “the spirit of the state’s autonomous character”, the PDP-BJP government did not move a petition in the Supreme Court until questions were raised in the media about the government’s lack of action.
“They were forced to move a petition in the Supreme Court,” the NC working president said.
He said there was fifty per cent reservation in Jammu and Kashmir’s medical colleges for girl students — one of the hard-fought achievements of NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who believed in women empowerment through equal opportunities in education.
“NEET poses the grave threat that this significant percentage of reserved seats in our medical colleges meant for girl students from our state will now have to be shared on a national level. They would possibly have to compete for these reservations against students from the rest of the country.
“Then there are issues of curriculum mismatches, differences in syllabus as well as systemic incongruities,” the NC working president said.
He said that after studying for two to three years preparing for state-level entrance examinations, the students from the state are faced with the possibility of having to appear for an examination with a curriculum different from the one they have prepared for – all because of the “callousness” of the state government.
The former chief minister said the PDP-BJP government had shown similar “ineptitude and irresponsibility” while dealing with other vital issues of importance to the state.
“Look at how the state government forced hundreds and thousands of our brothers and sisters out on the streets to press for basic allocation of ration as per the previous, established norms.
“The PDP-BJP government extended the National Food Security Act to the state despite clear and known disadvantages it had for our state. Till today the state government has no solid solution to offer on the NFSA mess that it created,” he said.
