NEET ‘claims’ two more lives in Tamil Nadu

The ‘discriminatory’ NEET has allegedly claimed the lives of two students in Tamil Nadu.

Two medical college aspirants ended their lives after the results showed that they have scored low marks in the examination based on which admissions into medical colleges are done.

Rithu Sree and Vaishiya from Tiruppur and Pattukkottai in Tamil Nadu killed themselves on Wednesday, hours after the NEET results were made public online. With this, the number of students who took their own lives due to NEET has gone up to four ever since the examination was made mandatory in 2017.

NEET was a major election issue in Tamil Nadu in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls with the Congress promising to replace it with a state-level entrance exam if it came to power.

Both Rithu Sree and Vaishiya, who had scored good marks in their plus-two examination, could not perform according to their expectations in the NEET exam.

Students who have appeared before NEET in the past say most of the questions are culled out from the CBSE syllabus and students from Tamil Nadu have a tough time cracking the examination.

NEET is considered discriminatory against a student from rural areas who are pitted against those coming from the urban areas across the country, who according to the opponents of the entrance test, have better educational facilities. The issue is emotional in Tamil Nadu and two medical aspirants – S Anitha and S Prathiba – took their lives after not being able to clear NEET, though they came out with distinction in their Plus-two exams, in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

As the NEET results showed only 49 per cent of the students from the state could get through the exam this year, DMK President M K Stalin laid the blame for the latest suicide by two students at the BJP and AIADMK governments at the Centre and State respectively.

“I reiterate that the BJP Government at the Centre immediately act on a unanimous resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly that sought permanent exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu. The Centre should respect the sentiments of a state,” Stalin said in a statement.

The DMK chief said his party MPs would raise the issue of NEET during the Parliament session commencing mid-June.