kolkata the union education ministry has informed that ugc net exams on october 21 22 and 23 have been postponed in bengal owing to durga puja trinamool mp abhishek banerjee had raised the issue on september 19 the day national testing agency nta had released the exam schedule on sunday state education minister partha chatterjee had written to nta seeking postponement of the exams speaking in rajya sabha on sunday mp dinesh trivedi had also urged the centre to defer the exams the rajya sabha chairperson had asked union minister prakash javadekar who was present in the house to assist trivedi to meet union education minister ramesh pokhriyal i met the education minister in parliament he told me exams on the three puja dates will be deferred and the new dates will be announced soon trivedi told toinot to be left behind the state bjp also took to twitter to announce as a mark of respect towards bengali culture and heritage modi govt has directed nta to revise ugcnet dates to prevent any clash with durga puja days new dates will be notified soon the net exams are scheduled to be held in phases from september 24 to november 5 exams were scheduled on seven days next month october 1 7 9 17 21 22 and 23 while geography was scheduled on october 21 panchami bengali was among nine language papers scheduled on october 22 shasthi the hindi exam was scheduled on october 23 saptamispeaking to reporters on sunday chatterjee had said durga puja is the biggest festival in bengal it is a national festival how can they fix the date on the day of puja we voice our objection we will write to nta to change the schedule that clashes with the puja he added that it was ironic that those who were always enthusiastic about pujas were indifferent towards the biggest social and religious festival of bengal on monday chatterjee said the examinations on the three durga puja dates have been deferred by nta the new dates will be announced soon trinamool congress had earlier also opposed the centres decision to conduct jee mains and neet ug examinations in september the bengal law minister moloy ghatak along with ministers of five other oppositionruled states had also moved the apex court seeking a review