The DMK says NEET only favours affluent classes, who can take private coaching. (File)
Amid escalating row over the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test or NEET for medical exams, the MK Stalin-led government in Tamil Nadu went a step further today and said the NEET Exemption Bill will be cleared in the state assembly and it will be again sent to Governor RN Ravi. The Governor, the Chief Minister said at an all-party meeting, kept the Bill with him for 143 days before finally returning it.
In the state assembly resolution, responses to the Governor's comments for returning the bill will be added.
"It is the demand of eight crore people to give exemption from NEET exam, passed unanimously in the state Assembly. I ask you all - representatives of political parties - to give your valuable feedback in today's all-party meeting," the Chief Minister had said this morning at the meeting that the AIADMK and the BJP gave a miss.
Shortly after, the 68-year-old DMK chief said, "I met the Governor over the issue. A resolution for exemption was passed at the (all-party) meeting. I made the appeal also to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual meeting when he opened 11 new medical colleges. Now Governor, after keeping our Bill on his desk for 143 days, sent it back."
The Governor expressed his reservation against the bill, saying it will affect the interests of poor and rural students. He had also cited the Supreme Court's verdict in the CMC Vellore case.
"The CMC Vellore verdict governor cites is different from the legislative powers of the state legislature," Chief Minister MK Stalin said today.
A special session will be held to clear the bill and Speaker M Appavu will announce the date.
Last year, after taking charge, the Chief Minister had passed the exemption bill in September. The NEET, he said, favours affluent classes who can afford private coaching.
In his Republic Day message, however, the Governor took a stand against the Bill: "Before the introduction of the NEET, the share of students from government schools to the seats in government medical colleges was hardly 1 per cent. Thanks to the affirmative action of 7.5 per cent reservation for government school students, that number has improved significantly."
For nearly 10 years, Tamil Nadu had no entrance exam for medical admissions and the state made this on the basis of class twelve marks. In 2006, the former governor had forwarded this and presidential assent was obtained. The DMK was in power at that time too.
