Tamil Nadu NEET Controversy: Governor Returns Bill To Speaker, Calls It Against Interest Of Students

The Bill seeks to scrap the NEET and admit the students to undergraduate courses in medicine, dentistry, Indian medicine and homoeopathy based on the marks obtained in Class 12 board examinations

Students Hold Placards And Shout Slogans Against The NEET Exams In Chennai. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi returned the Bill passed by MK Stalin-led government seeking exemption of the students from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), said a Raj Bhavan release. The Bill was returned to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly on February 1 for its ‘reconsideration by the House’.

According to the release issued by Raj Bhavan, after a detailed study of the Bill seeking exemption from NEET for admission to the UG medical courses, and the report of the high-level panel constituted by the state government in this matter, the governor said that the Bill was against the interest of the students, especially those from the rural and economically weaker background.

"Hence, the Hon'ble Governor has returned the Bill to the Hon'ble Speaker, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on February 01, 2022, giving detailed reasons, for its re-consideration by the House," read the release as quoted in a report by Mint.

This move comes days after the Tamil Nadu government had urged the Governor to speed up the process of forwarding the Bill for the President’s approval.

The state governor, in his address during the 73^rd Republic Day speech, had said that NEET had led to an increase in the enrollment of students from government school in the state-run medical colleges, prior to which it was less than 1%.

“Thanks to the affirmative action of 7.5% reservation for government school students that the number has improved significantly," he had said as quoted by Mint.

Notably, the Bill to exempt the state from the NEET for admission to UG medical courses was passed last year in September after a 19-year-old medical aspirant was found dead at his home in Salem, hours before the entrance examination.

The Bill passed by the state government seeks to scrap the NEET and admit the students to undergraduate courses in medicine, dentistry, Indian medicine and homoeopathy based on the marks obtained in Class 12 board examinations.