The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) has said it would consider conducting NEET in Kannada if the State government approaches them. However, the official cautioned that there was a need for the State to fulfil certain criteria.
Speaking to presspersons in New Delhi, Union Minister Ananth Kumar said one of the conditions is that the State should have the wherewithal to conduct the exam in regional language. Considering that CET in Karnataka was conducted only in English, the State was ill-prepared as of now with the translated material for the technical jargon, he said.
On the delay in Karnatka approaching them, an MHFW source told The Hindu : “All through, the Karnataka government had said that they wanted the exam in English, and now as an after thought, they wrote to us saying they want it to be bilingual.”
In fact, although the letter written by Medical Education Principal Secretary, Jawaid Akhtar, was dated December 14, 2016, it was signed only on December 20 and dispatched only on Thursday.
The Karnataka government until last year conducted CET for admissions to professional courses, including in medical and dental colleges, in English. Only this year, the State government decided to have a bilingual question paper (in English and Kannada) for 2017 CET. However, sources said with NEET now being the only entrance test for medical and dental, material in Kannada is not immediately ready.
Mr. Akhtar, meanwhile, said there was “no deadline” for the State to send its response and it would persuade the Centre to have a bilingual paper in the interests of students. “We have decided to make CET bilingual from 2017 and will also attempt to have NEET bilingual this year,” he said.
