The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Monday passed a Bill to dispense with the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) and provide for admission to medical courses based on Class 12 marks to ensure social justice.
Chief Minister M K Stalin introduced the Bill and all parties, including the main opposition AIADMK and its ally PMK, besides others like Congress, supported the Bill, which seeks to provide for admission to UG courses in medicine, dentistry, Indian medicine and homeopathy based on Class 12 marks. The BJP staged a walkout, protesting against the government move.
Stalin tabled the Bill based on the recommendation of the high-level committee led by retired judge AK Rajan which submitted its report in July. The retired Madras High Court Judge had said the report was prepared after looking into around 86,000 representations from various stakeholders and a majority of them said they don’t want NEET, reports The Indian Express.
Stalin said after careful consideration of the recommendation of the high-level committee, to ensure social justice, the state government has decided to do away with NEET.
The chief minister said that the committee has reported that NEET undermined the diverse societal representation in MBBS and higher medical studies, favouring mainly the affordable and affluent sections of the society and thwarting the dreams of underprivileged social groups.
Meanwhile, the death by suicide of a medical aspirant fearing the outcome of the test he was to take echoed in the House with the main opposition AIADMK targeting the government over the incident.
The opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami claimed that the DMK government failed to provide clarification on whether or not NEET would be held this year and pushed the 19-year-old NEET aspirant Dhanush to death.
“Chief Minister MK Stalin said once DMK assumes charge, NEET will be cancelled in the state but that didn’t happen. The government failed to make a proper decision due to which students, parents were left stranded. Since Stalin and other DMK ministers continuously made false propaganda that NEET would be cancelled, the students were not able to prepare themselves 100 per cent to face the exam and this led to the death of Dhanush,” Edappadi said.
Stalin, meanwhile, held AIADMK responsible for the deaths of Dhanush and another NEET aspirant Anitha earlier. He said the previous AIADMK government which is in the NDA alliance, could have demanded the BJP give an exception for Tamil Nadu from NEET before voting in favour of CAA and farmer laws, but they lacked the courage to do that.
