Ruling DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday assured all efforts to ensure NEET exemption for Tamil Nadu, as his son and cabinet minister Udhayanidhi led the party’s state-wide hunger strike demanding the abolition of the test. The DMK will not stop till Tamil Nadu got exemption from the central qualifying test, Stalin said. The CM’s remarks at a wedding coincided with his party’s agitation seeking to do away with the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET). Stalin also took a swipe at TN Governor RN Ravi for his recent remarks that he would never sign in favour of the state’s anti-NEET bill, saying the matter was now with the President and that the Governor’s job was only that of a “postman,” who has to send to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan matters taken up by the state Assembly. The ruling party hunger strike was held all through Tamil Nadu except in Madurai where the AIADMK is holding a massive state conference today. It will be now held on August 23. At the protest venue at Valluvar Kottam here, DMK youth wing chief Udhayanidhi was joined by senior leaders and cabinet ministers– Duraimurugan, Ma Subramanian and PK Sekar Babu, party MPs including Dayanidhi Maran, MLAs and Chennai Mayor Priya R. A collage of medical aspirants who allegedly died of suicide over NEET, including S Anita of Ariyalur was put on display at the stage and floral tributes paid to them. Newlywed couples joined the protest carrying anti-NEET banners. The hunger strike is being held in the wake of another alleged suicide of an aspirant last week.
The earlier bill adopted by the Assembly during the AIADMK regime was returned and the then ruling party did not reveal it, even when Assembly was on, he said. That bill subsequently lapsed, Stalin said, adding his party, ahead of the 2021 elections promised to wholeheartedly strive for a NEET ban. The bill seeking exemption for TN was adopted twice after the DMK came to power and was “finally sent for Presid