TN NEET Bill: State To Adopt Another NEET Resolution In Special Assembly Session

Chennai, Feb 5: An all party meeting convened by the Tamil Nadu Government on Saturday decided to convene a special session of the State Legislative Assembly to adopt another resolution seeking exemption from NEET and forward it to the Governor for Presidential assent.

An unanimous resolution was adopted at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin in which all the alliance parties of the DMK and the PMK participated. The resolution said people of the State would not accept the Governor’s decision to return the Bill to the Government.

Taking into consideration the prevailing ‘unusual’ situation, the meeting decided to adopt another resolution by convening a special session of the Assembly and forward it again to the Raj Bhavan to be forwarded for the Presidential assent. However, the principal Opposition AIADMK and its former ally, the BJP, skipped the meeting.

Later, AIADMK Coordinator and former CM O Panneerselvam, in a letter to Mr Stalin, pledged his party’s support for NEET exemption and said there was no change in his party’s stand on the issue as it was made known on a number of occasion. The all party meet was convened to decide on the next course of action, two days after Governor R N Ravi returned the Bill adopted in the Assembly in September last year seeking to exempt Tamil Nadu from the purview of the NEET, to the State government for re-consideration. That the Governor had returned the Bill without forwarding the same to the President for his assent was drawn criticisms from various parties which also demanded recall of the Governor.

In a related development, DMK’s ally, Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) led by T.Velmurugan, MLA, led a protest demonstration in the city demanding the recall of Governor for returning the NEET Bill back to the State government. Earlier, in his opening remarks at the meeting, Mr Stalin alleged that Ravi “had failed to perform the duty vested in him by the Constitution” by not forwarding it for Presidential assent.

Pointing out that the Bill reflected the sentiments of the eight crore people of the State, Mr Stalin the Governor had kept the Bill pending for 142 days and returned it to the State government after the NEET exams were cover and admissions to the UG medical courses have commenced. The Bill was adopted in the Assembly based on the recommendations of the Committee headed by Justice A.K. Rajan and te Governor did not bother to send it to the President for his consent,” Mr Stalin said, adding the DMK’s stand was that there should be no entrance examination to access higher education. He recalled that in 2006 the then DMK government adopted a resolution for abolition of entrance tests for which the approval was received in 87 days from the Governor and the President.