'Legitimate demand': Priyanka Gandhi backs Sonia's call for OBC seat reservation in NEET

Backing Sonia Gandhi's demand for reservation of seats for Other Backward Class (OBC) students in medical institutions, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said the demand is legitimate and would ensure social justice. This comes after Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding reservation for OBC candidates in All-India quota of medical and dental seats in state medical educational institutions. 

Taking to Twitter, she stated that it is a demand for social justice and expected that the Central Government will implement this.

READ: NEET, JEE main 2020 exams postponed to September owing to COVID-19 crisis

Sonia Gandhi in her letter mentioned that 15%, 7.5% and 10% seats are reserved for SC, ST and Economically Weaker Section candidates respectively under the All-India quota in both Central and state educational institutions. Citing the data compiled by the All India Federation of Other Backward Classes since 2017, she lamented that OBC candidates lost over 11,000 seats in the All-India quota due to non-implementation of OBC reservations in state educational institutions. 

Thereafter, Gandhi highlighted that the 93rd Constitutional Amendment envisages special provisions for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward class in admission to any educational institutions other than minority educational institutions. She added that the denial of the reservation to OBC candidates violated the very objective of the 93rd Constitutional Amendment. Moreover, the Congress president contended that the deserving OBC candidates faced a barrier in accessing medical education due to this policy.

READ: Sonia Gandhi demands OBC reservation under NEET quota in state educational institutions

NTA to reopen application edit window after JEE Main, NEET postponement

Meanwhile, After Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced the postponement of NEET, JEE Mains and Advanced, National Testing Agency (NTA) opened an edit window for the candidates to make corrections if any, and change the choice of centre cities. The edit option will be operational from July 4 to July 15 on websites ntaneet.nic.in and jeemain.nta.nic.in.

While the corrections in application details will be allowed up to 5.00pm on July 15, the submission of fee will be accepted up to 11.50pm on July 15. Dates for downloading Admit cards indicating Roll Number and Centre of Examination have not been announced yet. It will be displayed 15 days before the conduct of respective examinations on the official website.

READ: NEET 2020 exam postponed to September 13; JEE Main from Sept 1-6; Advanced on Sept 27

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