Buoyed by the Supreme Court’s support for a single national entrance test for medicine, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is now considering a similar move for engineering courses. Former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in 2012 had attempted this, but he wasn’t successful as the IITs had refused to participate in the test. They wanted to continue admissions through JEE. It is not clear at this moment if the entrance test proposed by the ministry under NDA II government will also cover premier institutions like the IITs and NITs. While the controversy continues here in Jammu and Kashmir the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on 4th May last had raised apprehensions and alleged the entrance test was 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. He had 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. He had blamed the coalition leadership for indolence and irresponsibility. Omar 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. He said there was 50 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 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.
