Sonia Gandhi calls crucial meeting with Congress CMs, Mamata and Uddhav over GST, NEET and JEE

New Delhi: Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi will speak to the Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled states and also the Chief Ministers of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday to discuss the pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) share, and the NEET and JEE examination issue.

According to Congress sources, the meeting will be chaired by Sonia Gandhi through video conferencing, in which Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy along with the West Bengal and Maharashtra Chief Ministers will be present.

Sonia and other leaders are also likely to discuss the JEE and NEET examinations, which are scheduled to be held in September. The Centre’s refusal to postpone the JEE and NEET examinations has triggered protests by students who are demanding that the entrances be postponed in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The virtual meeting will take place at 2.30 PM. The meeting comes a day ahead of the meeting of the GST Council on Thursday.

According to Congress sources, the opposition Chief Ministers are expected to discuss a joint effort to pressurise the government to postpone the exams at a time when the country is battling a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The source said the agenda of the meeting also includes compensation to states who have reported a loss of revenue because of the GST in the time of the pandemic.

While the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) is scheduled from September 1-6, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is planned on September 13. A total of 9.53 lakh candidates have registered for JEE-Mains, and 15.97 lakh students have registered for NEET.

There have been demands from several quarters to further postpone the entrance exams in view of increasing coronavirus cases.

Even after repeated requests from students, the National Testing Agency (NTA) once again on Tuesday said that the examinations will held on the scheduled dates. Last Friday, it had informed that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be held as scheduled on September 13, while the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) will be held from September 1 to 6.