Students Islamic Organization of India demands Urdu to be added as a regional language for NEET 2017

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 has been in the limelight for quite a long time for the havoc created due to addition of regional languages by Union Minister JP Nadda (ALSO READ NEET 2017: Regional politics strikes before application process commences). The Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Odisha wrote to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare in order to include both Kannada and Odia respectively in the list of regional languages for NEET 2017. On the other hand, the Students Islamic Organization of India (SIO) took up the responsibility to ensure the addition of Urdu as one of the national languages for NEET 2017. Initiated by the National Secretary of SIO, Thouseef Ahmad Madikeri, an online campaign on change.org was created to kick-start the process. The campaign already has over 1,800 signatories.

This PaGaLGuY correspondent spoke to Shaikh Naser, the State Campus Secretary of SIO who said, “Once the campaign achieves its target of 2,500 signatures, a request will be sent out to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda and the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javdekar to fasten the process.”

Naser adds, “The first thing that we did was reach out to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare. He asked us to get a petition signed by the State Minister for considering the language to be added. Since Urdu isn’t the state language of any Indian state, nobody took additional efforts to include it. Thousands of students across India are looking forward to appear for NEET 2017 in Urdu.”

States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Telangana have a high concentration of students who have acquired higher education in Urdu. Maharashtra alone has close to 11,000 students who appear for 12th standard examinations in Urdu out of which a large number are preparing for NEET.

Naser adds, “We contacted several ministers including the State Minister of Telangana. The SIO sent in several requests to the Chief Minister, Home Minister and the State Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra. However, the Minister of Health Education Girish Mahajan was the quickest to respond on the matter. Girish Mahajan finally drafted and signed a petition directed to the Union minister for adding Urdu as one of the languages for NEET 2017.

The Central Board of Secondary Education along with the Supreme Court will have the final say in adding languages.

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