Stalin asks President to give assent to NEET exemption bill
Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday urged the President to immediately accord assent to the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill 2021 passed by the State Assembly seeking exemption for the state from NEET.
Drawing President Droupadi Murmu’s attention to the suicide of a student and his father at Chrompet in Chennai due to stress of the student’s ‘failure’ in NEET, which took the overall suicide toll in the state due to NEET to 16, Stalin said, “The NEET Exemption Bill passed by our Government is the outcome of Legislative consensus, stemming from the collective will of the people of Tamil Nadu. Each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but invaluable human lives to our society. I, therefore, solicit your immediate intervention in the matter and urge you to accord assent at the earliest to the above Bill passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.”
Citing the recommendation of Justice A K Rajan committee, which was the basis for the Tamil Nadu Admission to Under Graduate Medical Degree Courses Bill 2021 that awaits Rashtrapati Bhavan’s assent, the CM said that in the process of providing assent to the Bill, the union home ministry had forwarded the comments of union Health, Higher Education and Ayush Ministries on August 26, 2022, May 15, 2023 and January 13, 2023, respectively, and sought clarification of the Tamil Nadu government.
“We had also provided all the details expeditiously. But our Bill has not been provided assent till now and the students have been forced to undergo the NEET based admission process. This has caused immense anxiety and stress in the minds of the students and parents, ” the CM said.