new delhi the joint entrance exam jeemains for admission to engineering colleges began on tuesday amid stringent precautions and social distancing measures in view of the covid19 pandemic even as the chorus continued to grow for postponement of the crucial exam which has already been deferred twicescenes outside exam centres across the country reflected the new normal amid the pandemic staggered entry and exit for candidates sanitisers at the gates distribution of masks and students queuing up with safe social distance among themjeemains the first large scale exam to be conducted amid the pandemic is scheduled from september 1 to 6 over 9 lakh candidates have registered for the exam for admission to engineering courses in iits nits and centrally funded technical institutions cftiswhile the governments of odisha madhya pradesh and chhattisgarh have assured students that they will provide transportation to candidates a group of iit alumni and students have also launched a portal to provide transport facilities to exam centres for the candidates in needseveral candidates appearing for the exam in west bengal had a difficult time reaching their test centres owing to heavy rain and lack of transport however those in delhi and ncr didnt complain of any major difficultiescongress leader rahul gandhi who has been opposing the conduct of jee and neet exams amid pandemic alleged that the modi government has ignored the genuine concerns of aspirants who have been demanding postponement of the entrance exams due to its arrogance and is jeopardising indias futuremodi government is jeopardising indias future arrogance is making them ignore the genuine concerns of the jeeneet aspirants as well as the demands of those who took ssc and other exams give jobs not empty slogans gandhi said on twitterstudents in delhi who appeared for the exam on tuesday said they were initially apprehensive about taking the test amid a pandemic but did not face any issues at the centres as all safety norms were properly followedshivani who took the computerbased exam at the arwachin bharti bhawan senior secondary school in vivek vihar here said she travelled from dwarka mor to the centre without facing any difficultyamid the ongoing protests to demand the postponement of the exam i had thought the exam wont happen but somewhere i didnt want them to be postponed as it would have led to more anxiety among students she saidrequesting anonymity another candidate at the centre said all standard operating procedures were followed inside the examination centre and students were made to sit at appropriate safe distancehowever scenes were different in west bengal while the government had asked all state transport utilities to commence bus services from 5 am in view of the exam several candidates in north 24 parganas berhampur malda and siliguri claimed that they had to wait for hours braving a downpour to get a bus to reach their test centressuspension of local train services due to the covid19 pandemic added to the woes of the candidatesi had to hire a cab to reach the