Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) should be decentralised and that States should be given the opportunity to conduct the Common Entrance Test (CET) for medical courses.

Speaking at a protest against NEET irregularities organised by the Youth Congress at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday, he said that education is a subject in the concurrent list. “In the federal system, the respective States should be given independence to conduct the entrance tests for all professional courses,” he argued.

“The NEET question paper was leaked, and neither Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken responsibility. Dharmendra Pradhan has washed his hands of rescheduling the NEET. This responsibility should be borne by Dharmendra Pradhan and Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister should apologise unconditionally to the students,” he demanded.

“In Karnataka and other States, the CET was conducted transparently for those seeking admission to medical courses. Narendra Modi replaced CET with NEET in 2016. Question papers have been leaked five times in ten years. Students have been preparing for the NEET for a year. Many have spent thousands of rupees on training in coaching centres. Those who have money get coaching, the poor and children from rural areas cannot get coaching,” he said.

“During the last BJP government under Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai, the question paper was leaked in the examination for the recruitment of engineers and sub-inspectors. It has never happened in the history of Karnataka that a senior police officer who was Additional Director General of Police went to jail in this regard. There have been many such question paper leaks when the BJP was in power at the Centre and in the State,” he added.

69% of the youth are unemployed

Further, Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that Mr. Modi has called on the people of the country not to buy gold, save on petrol and diesel, and not to travel abroad, and he is the one on a foreign trip to five countries. Among the young men and women in the country in the age group of 20 to 29, 67% of the youth are unemployed. “By providing two crore jobs every year, 24 crore jobs should have been created during the last 12 years. But so far, two crore jobs have not been provided,” he blamed.

“Students who had worked hard continuously have committed suicide in despair due to the NEET question paper leak. It was the responsibility of the Union government to provide compensation to the families of the students who committed suicide.” He demanded the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.