‘NEET strikes at state’s autonomy’

TN Parties To Explore Legal Steps To Nix It

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

09.01.2022

Chennai: A meeting of all legislature parties chaired by chief minister M K Stalin on Saturday resolved to take necessary legal steps to abolish NEET. The meeting also decided to take other state governments into confidence and put up a collective fight against NEET. The MLAs said the common entrance test had destroyed the dreams of the poor and rural students and affected the autonomy of the state.

The meeting saw 12 parties endorsing the resolution, including the DMK and the main opposition, the AIADMK. BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan walked out of the meeting, protesting against the resolutions. “Tamil Nadu is a model to other states in medical education, but NEET and National Medical Commission Act introduced by the Union government have affected the students. The Union government has snatched the rights of the states in deciding admission to medical colleges set up with their own funds,” the resolution said. The parties alleged that the governor’s act of sitting on the Bill, which was passed unanimously by the assembly in September, without forwarding it to the President, questioned the sovereignty of the legislature. NEET benefited only those students who had access to specialized training. It created an impression that 12 years of schooling was of no use in medical admissions and made the educational system meaningless, they said.

The chief minister himself visited the governor and urged him to send the Bill to the President, while a delegation of MPs representing all parties could not meet the President and submitted a representation to his office, which was later forwarded to the Union home minister. The meeting decided that an all-party delegation could meet the Union minister if there was an invite

Earlier, addressing the meeting, Stalin said , “The principle of democracy is that when a legislature passes a Bill, the governor should respect and give assent to it. ”

Former health minister C Vijayabaskar told TOI that the AIADMK would support the state government in the legal battle against NEET.

Health minister Ma Subramanian said that Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan himself had admitted to him that there was opposition to NEET in his home state Odisha as well, but he could not do anything. “Legal experts will be consulted as to what kind of legal action can be initiated against the governor who has been delaying the reference of the Bill to the President, besides abolishing NEET,” Subramanian told TOI.

‘Revise school curriculum, don’t fault NEET’

Chennai: Senior BJP leader and MLA Vanathi Srinivasan on Saturday denied the  contention of the Dravidian parties that NEET for medical admissions was against the principles of social justice and the reservation policy followed in Tamil Nadu.

She walked out of a meeting of legislature party leaders, chaired by chief minister M K Stalin at the Secretariat, protesting against the anti-Centre resolution passed at the meeting. “The common entrance test is being conducted based on the orders of the Supreme Court and the initiatives taken by the erst- while Congress-led UPA regime, in which the DMK was very much a constituent. It was neither the BJP’s agenda nor was it introduced after the BJP government assumed office,” she told reporters. “There was no change in the school education curriculum for 12 years in the state, but people blame students for poor results.

TNN