Amid the debate on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily recalled Saturday the circumstances leading to the introduction of the Common Entrance Test (CET) in Karnataka when he was the chief minister during the early 1990s.
Moily was speaking at the launch of his autobiography Nanna Bogaseya Aakaasha.
He recalled there was a medical student who would often visit him seeking help to pay fees. Moily would oblige. "He suddenly stopped coming and when I enquired, I got to know he died by suicide as he could not sustain the fees for medical education," he said.
Aggrieved by this incident, Moily introduced the CET to ensure that students from all backgrounds had access to professional education - an aspect on which some are questioning NEET.
"Lakhs of students have benefitted from CET," Moily said narrating how, over the years, he met students who made a career out of engineering and medical education through the CET.
Launching the book, former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara said, "Moily could have jumped to any party. But, he's a Congress loyalist. He has faced 12 elections. He won six Assembly elections. He contested for Lok Sabha six times and won twice."
Moily, a Saraswati Samman and Sahitya Akademi awardee, is already writing at least two more books. One book on the Indian legal system is set to be released in the next few months, Moily announced on the occasion.
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(Published 12 March 2022, 15:23 IST)
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