TN: CM Stalin Writes Letter To President Droupadi Murmu Requesting Her To Grant Assent To Bill Exempting State From NEET

Chief Minister MK Stalin today (14 August) wrote a letter to President Droupadi Murmu requesting her to give her assent to the Bill exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET.

In his letter, he wrote about the recent suicides of a NEET aspirant Jagadeeswaran and his father Selva Sekar in Chromepet and said that the exemption was required as NEET was against students from underprivileged backgrounds.

"The Government of Tamil Nadu has been consistently opposing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses, considering the fact the NEET based selection process favours urban students and those who can afford costly coaching classes and hence is inherently against the poor and underprivileged.

"It has been our considered view that the selection process should only be through the +2 marks, the outcome of school education rather than a separate entrance exam which is an unwanted additional stress on students."

Further, he added that a study had been done on the impact of the exam on such students by a committee headed by Justice AK Rajan, a former High Court judge.

"In this regard, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice Thiru. A.K. Rajan, former High Court Judge, was constituted to study the issue. The above Committee undertook a detailed study on the NEET based admission process and its adverse impact on the poor and rural students and submitted its recommendations.

"Based on this report and various discussions, the Tamil Nadu Admission to Under Graduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021' (L.A Bill No.43 of 2021) was passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly Legislative Assembly on 13.09.2021 and sent to Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu on 18.09.2021."

Regarding the status of the Bill, he wrote that the state government had given its reply to the comments of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Higher Education, and Ministry of Ayush on the Bill.

"Since it was returned by the Hon'ble Governor after five months of delay, it was reintroduced in the Assembly on 08.02.2022 and was passed again after reconsideration and sent again to the Hon'ble Governor for reserving the same to Hon'ble President of India. The Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu has forwarded the Bill to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and is pending for assent.

"In the process for providing assent to our Bill, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had forwarded the comments of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (on 21.06.2022), Department of Higher Education, MoE (26.08.2022 and 15.05.2023) and Ministry of Ayush (13.01.2023) on the Bill and sought our clarifications on the comments. 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.

"As a result, there have been various sad incidents of students (or their parents) committing suicides, depressed by their failure to get an admission through NEET. Even recently, a student from Chrompet in Chennai and his father committed suicide due to the stress of the student's failure in NEET. With this, the toll of students who have committed suicide due to NEET has increased to 16 in our State."

He concluded his letter stating, "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."

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