Karnataka, Odisha upset over Neet language bias'
Both the states have never conducted the exam in their language and have always preferred English as their choice of language.
New Delhi: The decision to conduct All India National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) for admission in medical courses in six regional languages is causing heartburn to Karnataka and Odisha.
Stating that students who have studied in Kannada and Odia would be at a disadvantage, both the states have approached the Prime Minister (PM) and the health ministry demanding the entrance be conducted in their respective languages. Significantly, both the states have never conducted the exam in their language and have always preferred English as their choice of language. However, unhappy with the decision to conduct the exam in six vernacular languages, including Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil Marathi and Telugu, other than Hindi and English, they have written to the Prime Minister to intervene.
Holding the Central government responsible for “language bias”, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik had recently written to the PM seeking his personal intervention so the test could be conducted in state’s language-Odia.
The health ministry is “in for a shock” as both the states never expressed their apprehensions during consultations. Expressing their disappointment over the state’s demand, senior officials in the health ministry say that the decision to shortlist these six regional languages was taken after taking all the states on board. “Wider consultations, tale-conferences took place before we finally decided on these languages. Both these states never expressed their concern, and in fact they have never conducted medical examinations in their language. Both on record said that they don’t have any issue with “English” as their choice of language. But suddenly, the language politics has come to the fore,” said an official.
However, the health ministry on Friday wrote to the CBSE to consider the demand of both the states. The exam will be conducted in April-May next year. “The problem is that the CBSE doesn’t have lexicons of these languages to reflect the English meaning. Unless the glossary of terms is available, the exam can’t be conducted in these regional languages.
Anyhow, we have written to the CBSE. Let’s see what they say,” added the official. After much dilly-dallying, the Supreme Court earlier this year paved the way for the holding of Neet in two phases for the academic year 2016-17.