Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today said, if needed, a special session of the Assembly will be convened to pass new resolutions against NEET.
He was responding to a question raised by Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin in the Assembly. Stalin said the Central government, in its affidavit filed in the High Court, has stated that the resolutions passed in the Tamilnadu Assembly in 2017 and sent for the President’s approval were rejected.
“If a resolution is rejected by the President, then the government can table another resolution within six months. However, the government has failed to do this,” he said.
Responding to this, Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam said the government has not got any clarification from the Centre on why the resolution was withheld.
“Even now, the Union government has given its clarification only in the affidavit filed in the High Court and no communication has been made to the State government. In the past two years, we have so far written 12 letters on why the resolution has been withheld, but we have not received a reply yet. We will write one final letter. If there is no positive response, we might take the legal route after exploring the possibilities,” he said.
Stalin said the government can pass new resolutions and send them again before the end of this Assembly session.
However, Shanmugam said it will not work out because there are chances that the new resolution might also be withheld.
“The resolutions sent by us are already withheld. Without knowing the reason for it, even if we send new resolutions without making the necessary amendments they might also be withheld,” he said.
Stalin asked why the Chief Minister and other Ministers did not put more pressure on the Central government to get response to the letters.
Palaniswami said he stressed on the importance of NEET exemption to Prime Minister Narendra Modi whenever he met him.
“NEET is an emotional topic and we are on the same page as the DMK on the subject. The welfare of the students of the State is our priority. Only now the issue has gone to court, we will seek answers there. If that fails, we can even convene a special session and pass new resolutions against NEET,” he said.