South

Tamil Nadu Vs Governor’s Over Medical Exam NEET: 10 Marks

February 4, 2022
Bharat Times

Relaxation in NEET for Tamil Nadu was DMK’s election promise of MK Stalin

New Delhi:
MPs from Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK and Congress walked out of the Rajya Sabha a day after the state governor sought exemption from the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test, or NEET, for Tamil Nadu – a bill passed by the state assembly.

Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet for this big story:

  1. After coming to power in May last year, Chief Minister MK Stalin’s party passed the bill in September, stating that the examination for medical admission favors the affluent classes who can afford private coaching.

  2. Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, however, returned the bill saying it was against the interests of rural and economically poor students. Shri Ravi said that due to NEET, the enrollment of students of government schools in medical colleges has increased.

  3. “Before the introduction of NEET, the share of students from government schools for seats in government medical colleges was barely 1 per cent. Thanks to affirmative action of 7.5 per cent reservation for government school students, that number has improved significantly, ” Said Mr. Ravi said in his Republic Day speech.

  4. Angered by the Governor’s move, DMK members wanted to raise the issue in Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour today, but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not agree and asked him to take up the matter later.

  5. DMK and Congress MPs continued to insist on raising the issue of NEET while some members were speaking on their Zero Hour matters. Within no time the opposition MPs walked out of the house.

  6. Tamil Nadu’s opposition party AIADMK has directly blamed the ruling DMK for the NEET controversy. Former chief minister and AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam said, “Had the DMK withdrew support to the then Congress-led UPA in 2010, when the exam was introduced, there would have been no issue of NEET.”

  7. “Now poor and rural students are getting affected because of DMK’s selfishness to cling to power,” Panneerselvam said. He said Stalin should put “necessary pressure” on the central government for exemption from NEET in order to fulfill the DMK’s poll promise.

  8. One of the reasons cited by the Tamil Nadu government while returning the bill to the state government on Thursday was that the bill was against the interests of rural and poor students.

  9. Getting exemption from NEET was DMK’s election promise for Tamil Nadu. Mr. Panneerselvam alleged that the Bill has not been sent to the Center by the Raj Bhavan for the assent of the President due to the “satisfied” attitude of the DMK government.

  10. Meanwhile, NEET-PG 2022 has been postponed by six to eight weeks on the request of doctors, who said it may clash with the counseling of interns. NEET-PG was to be conducted on March 12.

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