The National Testing Agency (NTA) said on Friday that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be held as scheduled on September 13.

The announcement comes at a time when there has been a widespread opposition regarding the examinations and requests pouring in for its rescheduling in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The NTA on Friday further announced that apart from NEE, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) will also be held as scheduled from September 1 to 6.

"We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for postponement of the examination in question relating to NEET UG-2020 as well as JEE (Main) April 2020," the NTA said citing Monday's Supreme Court order.

"In our opinion, though there is a pandemic situation, ultimately life has to go on and the career of the students cannot be put in peril for the long and full academic year cannot be wasted," the NTA added.

According to various news reports, there has been a rise in NEET centres by almost 50 per cent this year as compared to last year.

"With an adequate number of NEET centres in place, the government seems to have enough arrangements in place to hold the competitive exams," reported a popular news agency quoting sources close to the government.

"Moreover, in order to facilitate the candidates in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NTA had provided the JEE (Main) candidates with an option to change their centre cities five times, and as many as 63,931 candidates have availed the same," reports IANS.

"Similar option was also given to the NEET (UG) candidates, and about 95,000 of them have availed it," the report added.

It may be mentioned here that on Friday BJP MP Subramanian Swamy had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to direct the Education Ministry to postpone NEET and JEE till Diwali.

"Holding the exams, in my opinion, may lead to a large number of suicides by youths around the country," Swamy wrote in his letter to Modi.