NEET: TN plans to promulgate Act & get President assent


Chennai: Based on the suggestion by a high level Committee of Secretaries to promulgate an Act for eliminating National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in medical education and get the Presidential assent, the Tamilnadu government is planning an Act in the present session of the Assembly itself.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian said an Official Committee of Secretaries under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary was constituted to suggest appropriate measures to implement the recommendation of the High Level Committee headed by retired Judge A K Rajan.

The Committee of Secretaries has suggested to the government to promulgate an Act, similar to Tamilnadu Act No.3/2007, indicating the need for elimination of NEET in Medical Education and get the President’s assent for the same.

This will ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated in admission to medical education programmes, he said.

Subramanian said the State government has been consistently opposing NEET for admission to Medical Courses.

Considering the plight of the poor students in getting admission to medical seats, Chief Minister M K Stalin had on June five announced constitution of a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Retired High Court Judge, Justice A K Rajan.

The Rajan Committee undertook 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.

To implement the Rajan Committee’s recommendations, the high level committee of secretaries was formed and it had suggested to the State government to promulgate an Act and get the assent of the President.