Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday tabled a bill in the assembly to provide 7.5% reservation to government school students for admissions into professional courses like agriculture, fisheries, law and engineering.
According to a report from IANS, Stalin who spoke in the assembly while tabling the bill, said that the government’s decision was to ensure more number of government school students especially from rural areas, are bestowed with opportunities to enter into professional courses.
The report further said that opposition leader and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami supported the bill and the bill is expected to be passed unanimously in the assembly.
Earlier, the AIADMK government had introduced a horizontal reservation of 7.5% for the government school students who had cleared National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), to get admission to undergraduate medical courses, the report said.
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According to the report, the decision regarding the 7.5% reservation for government school students in professional courses was announced in a cabinet meeting held in August. He also informed the cabinet that legislation in this regard would be brought in the assembly.
The decision to have a separate reservation for government school students was based on Justice (retired) D Murugesan committee’s recommendations. The committee, constituted by the state government on June 15, studied the reasons behind the poor representation of government school students in professional courses and submitted a report recommending the reservation.