Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has been consistently opposing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses, Health Minister Ma Subramanian informed the State Assembly.
Moving the demand for grants for his department, he said considering the plight of the poor students in getting admission to medical seats, Chief Minister M K Stalin had on June 5, 2021 constituted a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Retired High Court Judge, Justice A K Rajan.
The Committee under took a detailed study on whether the NEET based admission process has adversely affected the social, economic and federal polity and the students of rural and urban poor, those who studied in Government Schools, those who studied in Tamil Medium or any other
section of students in Tamilnadu and submitted its recommendations on 14 July, 2021.
An Official Committee of Secretaries under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary has suggested promulgating an Act, similar to Tamilnadu Act No.3/2007, indicating the need for elimination of NEET in medical education and getting the President’s assent for the same.
Based on the recommendation, ‘A Bill to provide for admission to under graduate courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination’ was introduced and unanimously passed on the floor of Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly on 13 September, 2021 and published in the Tamilnadu Government Gazette the same day.
The Bill has been sent to the Governor on 18 September, 2021 for reserving the same for the President of India. The Governor returned the Bill on 1 February this year for reconsideration of the House.
A special session of Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly was immediately convened on 8 February and the Bill was reintroduced, considered, discussed and passed on the floor of the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly and has since been sent to the Governor on the same day seeking it to be reserved to the President for his assent, the Minister said.