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Tamil Nadu CM Stalin to hold all-party meet today on state's exemption from NEET
The DMK-led all-party meet had sought an appointment from Union home minister Amit Shah, however, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin alleged that he refused the same.
Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin will hold an all-party meeting on Saturday in Chennai to discuss the state's demand of exemption from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET) and what needs to be done next on the matter.
The decision to convene an all-party meet was announced by Stalin on Thursday during the Tamil Nadu assembly session. He said the assembly passed a resolution and bill in February last year against NEET in Tamil Nadu and sent the same to governor RN Ravi. “The governor is yet to send it to President Ram Nath Kovind for his assent,” the chief minister added.
Speaking during the assembly session, Stalin further stated that coaching for the pre-medical entrance examination will also benefit “rich students.” “NEET exams have made school education costlier. We cannot remain mute spectators,” he added.
The DMK-led all-party meet had also sought an appointment from Union home minister Amit Shah, however, Stalin alleged that he refused the same. The Tamil Nadu chief minister termed the refusal “anti-democratic.”
Tamil Nadu political parties and the Centre have been at loggerheads regarding the NEET since it was mandated in the southern state from 2017 by the Supreme Court. The previous AIADMK regime in Tamil Nadu had passed a bill in 2017 seeking exemption from NEET but it was rejected by the President. The current DMK-led state government passed the Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021 in the state assembly in September, with the consent of all parties barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On December 28 last year, a delegation of MPs led by the DMK submitted a memorandum to the office of President Kovind on the delay in considering the bill passed in September. The President's office had told them that the memorandum has been sent to the Union home ministry. According to latest updates, the Centre is yet to take a call on the bill.
Notably, the DMK-led MPs submitted the memorandum to the President after an RTI response from the Tamil Nadu governor's office revealed that the bill, which was first sent to him, is still under consideration.
Meanwhile, during his maiden address in the state assembly on Wednesday, Ravi said that entrance tests like NEET create an “unequal platform” by being “inherently discriminatory against rural students.”
The DMK's parliamentary leader TR Baalu was far from impressed as he told reporters that the governor must resign for not sending the bill to the President.
The BJP, on the other hand, has called DMK's stance on the NEET issue as "double standards," claiming that Shah being the home minister of the country has a lot of “workload". “It is justified if they have been trying for an appointment for ten days or so and he hasn’t met them,” Tamil Nadu's BJP general secretary Karu Nagarajan told Hindustan Times.
He added that the party leadership is yet to take a call on whether Shah will take part in the all-party meeting.
