Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat on Wednesday said that President of Council of Architecture Habeeb Khan has assured him that all the students who were allotted Examination Centres outside the State of Goa for the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) scheduled on August 29 will be accommodated in the Centres within Goa.
Thanking the COA President, Kamat has urged Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to ensure that necessary assistance is given to the COA in the interest of the students of Goa.
“The COA had invited application forms from various students all across the Country desiring to appear for NATA in the month of February 2020. However, after the outbreak of Covid pandemic the examinations were postponed. Eventually, the COA decided to hold the Online exams and requested the students to opt for the centres of their choice. Almost all the students had opted for Goa (Panaji) as their first choice”, Kamat said.
The Leader of Opposition said he was contacted by various students and parents stating that out of 500 students who are likely to appear for the NATA Exam, almost 100-150 students were allotted the Centre of Examination outside the State of Goa such as Bengaluru, Belgavi, Kolhapur, Hubli, Pune, Mumbai etc. “The students came to know about the same on Tuesday when they received the hall tickets. With hardly two days left for the exam, there was panic among the students as well as the teachers as the SOPs for Covid would have compelled them to undergo Covid test and other formalities which would have added to their mental strain”, he said.
Meanwhile, Kamat has also welcomed the initiative taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi of convening a meeting of all the Opposition Chief Minsters across the Country which was attended by Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel, Puducherry CM V. Narayan Swami, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray wherein a decision was taken to file review petition before the Supreme Court with a request for deferment of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Kamat has also welcomed the decision taken in the meeting to take up the matter with the centre regarding the long pending dues of rightful share of GST of every State.
