West Bengal applied for inclusion of Bengali in JEE months ago, says Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the state education department had asked the Centre a few months ago to include the Bengali language in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), but didn’t get any response.

“The state education minister Partha Chatterjee had applied a few months ago, seeking inclusion of Bengali language in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). I don’t know whether or not they got the letters,” said Banerjee, adding that even medical entrance examinations should be held in the regional languages.

On Friday, a day after Banerjee protested against inclusion of Gujarati in JEE, the National Testing Agency said in a statement that the JEE (Main) Examination started in 2013 with the idea of all states admitting their engineering candidates through JEE (Main). The request was sent to all the States in 2013. Only Gujarat agreed to admit their candidates in state engineering colleges of Gujarat through JEE (Main) and requested that the JEE (Main) paper be made available in Gujarati language, the statement said.

In 2014, Maharashtra also opted for admitting the engineering candidates in the state engineering colleges through JEE (Main). Maharashtra requested to provide the question papers in Marathi and Urdu, the statement said.

In 2016 both these states withdrew the admission to the state engineering colleges through JEE (Main). Therefore, the translation in Marathi and Urdu language was stopped. However, the translation of JEE (Main) question paper in Gujarati language continued on the request of Gujarat State, said the statement.

“None of the other States have approached NTA to provide the JEE (Main) question paper in any other Indian National Language,” said the statement issued by the director general of National Testing Agency.

The clarification came a day after Banerjee criticised the Centre and asked why other regional languages, including Bengali, should not be included as well.

“I have heard that they have issued a clarification that only Gujarat and Maharashtra had applied. Why then only Gujarati was included? Why not Marathi language was included?” she asked while addressing the media after a party meeting.

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