Ranchi, Aug 28 (IANS): Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to postpone the IIT-JEE and NEET examinations.

"Both these competitive examinations are extremely critical in the career of a student as the success or otherwise in these examinations would decide the course of their future life. Every examinee would thus try to put his best foot forward and, therefore, it is extremely essential to ensure that they take these examinations in an environment of health safety and mental peace," said the letter.

The letter said, "The people of the country are engaged in combating once in a century disaster of Covid-19, which has affected millions and left thousands dead. This pandemic has the additional negative consequence of widespread economic disruption. Due to the health scare as well as the economic disruption, there is a widespread prevalence of psychological stress among the people.

"Moreover, the conduct of examination of this scale would require public transport and hospitality units, including hotels, lodges and restaurants to function smoothly and optimally because of the movement of large numbers of examinees and their guardians.

"As part of its strategy to combat Covid-19, the Government of Jharkhand has not yet commenced public bus transport nor it has allowed the opening of restaurants. It is noteworthy that these restrictions have been imposed to check the spread of coronavirus. Thus the examinees and their guardians will have to face serious logistics issue."

The Chief Minister wrote, "There will be also some examinees whose residence would be located in the containment zone. As a result of which it would be difficult for them to move out of the area. There may be a case in which the examinee or his family member is infected with coronavirus and in all these cases it would be difficult for the examinee to appear for the examination".

While concluding the letter, the Chief Minister said, "Since there is no way to detect and prevent an infected person from appearing in the examination, it would therefore put the rest of the examinees and invigilators in a particular examination hall at the risk of being infected as well. Since comorbidity amongst the examinees cannot be ruled out, acquiring of infection by morbid examinees may be life threatening. I would earnestly request you kindly consider postponing both examinations in public interest".