The government of Tamil Nadu organized a meeting on Saturday, January 8 to cancel the medical entrance examination – National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). All political parties in Tamil Nadu except BJP attended the meeting and decided to engage in a joint legal battle to abolish entry completely. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister MK Stalin.
The resolution of 12 political parties states: “The Center has stripped the state government of the right to decide how its students are admitted to state-run medical colleges. This violates state autonomy.” The meeting was also attended by the opposition AIADMK.
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BJP Mahila Morcha, the national president and Coimbatore South legislator Vanathi Srinivasan demanded a white paper on the status of poor students’ admission to medical colleges and a fee structure stating that DMK and other parties presented a picture the BJP had introduced NEET.
“It was introduced by the Congress-led UPA government in which the DMK was a voter. The BJP does not agree with the NEET waiver resolution,” it said after organizing a strike of the meeting. She claimed that 69 percent of reservations are tracked in Tamil Nadu, guaranteeing social justice, and the claim that NEET was discriminatory is not valid.
The government of Tamil Nadu had previously passed a bill to repeal NEET and had opposed the national-level entrance examination for some time. It deprives people of disadvantaged backgrounds and puts enormous pressure on them, the government had said.
The government had forwarded the bill to the governor to send it to the president for approval, but the former had not sent the bill, Stalin said. “Failing to send this bill to the president is considered inappropriate for the sovereignty of the legislature,” the resolution said.
At the recent meeting, the CM asked, “How can we accept the two-hour exam NEET after plus two? Isn’t this a social injustice? How many people can afford to spend a huge amount of money on NEET coaching?”
“NEET is Tamil Nadu’s problem – our students’ problem. In a country like India, where the poor live, where inequality exists in the name of the caste, access to education is the greatest and most difficult thing there is,” said Stalin.
Legal experts will be consulted for necessary measures to completely abolish the NEET, Stalin said. At the meeting, it was decided that all political parties would work in unison and do everything necessary to reach a consensus so that other states in the country can realize the drawbacks of NEET, the resolution said.
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“Nearly 12 of the 13 political party leaders who attended the meeting decided to meet with the Union Minister of the Interior about demanding an exemption from NEET and also to consult legal experts on how to proceed with the legal battle,” said Health and Family Welfare Minister Ma Subramanian. .
Earlier, the MK Stalin-led DMK government had formed a panel headed by retired Judge AK Rajan to study the implications of the NEET on aspirants from the socially backward sections in Tamil Nadu. According to the report, NEET preferred students who have access to coaching and are inclined to the CBSE syllabus.
— with input of PTI
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