Tamil Nadu to bring legislation against NEET

Tamil Nadu will soon bring legislation seeking exemption from National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical and dental colleges and send it to the President of India for his assent, the Health Department said on Thursday.

Presenting the department’s policy note in the Assembly on Thursday, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said a Committee of Secretaries has suggested promulgating an Act, similar to Tamil Nadu Act No.3/2007, indicating the need for elimination of NEET in medical education.

“This will ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated in admission to medical education programmes,” the Minister said in his note. He also noted that Tamil Nadu has been consistently opposing NEET for admission to medical courses.

Recalling that the Government constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of retired High Court judge, Justice A K Rajan, Subramanian said the 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.

The AIADMK government in 2017 passed two bills seeking exemption from NEET but were rejected by the Centre. NEET is an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu with over a dozen students choosing to end their lives due to failure in the exam or due to fear of facing the test.

He said 11 new government medical colleges are being established in Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, The Nilgiris, Dindigul, Tiruppur, Namakkal, Nagapattinam, Krishnagiri, Tiruvallur, Kallakurichi and Ariyalur with an intake of 150 MBBS seats each.

“Administrative and financial sanctions have been accorded for construction of buildings and creation of new posts as per the National Medical Commission norms. Now the construction of buildings are in progress,” he said.

On Covid-19, the Minister said vaccination is being given a full thrust on a drive mode to mobilize the general public to come forward for vaccination. “With the vaccine drive, and continued vigil, it is hoped that the impact of Covid-19 will come down further in the coming days,” he said, adding that currently Tamil Nadu has a storage capacity of around 1794.75 MT of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO).