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Bill to scrap NEET in Tamil Nadu
- 9/15/2021 1:35:14 PM
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- Manikanth
- NEET Exams
The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Monday passed a Bill to dispense
with the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) and allow admission to
medical courses based on Class 12 marks to “ensure social justice”.
As Chief Minister M K Stalin tabled the Bill in the state
Assembly, almost all other parties, including the main opposition AIADMK and
its ally PMK, supported the Bill. The BJP, however, staged a walkout,
protesting against it.
Stalin introduced the Bill based on the recommendation of
the high-level committee led by retired judge AK Rajan, which submitted its
report in July.
The retired Madras High Court Judge had said the report was
prepared after looking into around 86,000 representations from various stakeholders,
a majority of whom said they don’t want NEET.
The provisions of Permanent Exemption Bill for NEET in Tamil
Nadu
- The Permanent Exemption Bill for NEET exempts medical
aspirants in Tamil Nadu from taking NEET examination for admission to UG degree
courses in Indian medicine, dentistry and homeopathy.
- Instead, it seeks to provide admission to such courses on
the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination, through
“Normalisation methods”.
- The aim of the Bill is to ensure “social justice, uphold
equality and equal opportunity, protect all vulnerable student communities from
being discriminated”, the government said.
- The Bill seeks to bring vulnerable student communities to
the “mainstream of medical and dental education and in turn ensure a robust
public health care across the state, particularly the rural areas”.
- The Bill opposes NEET because it “undermined the diverse
societal representation in MBBS and higher medical studies, favouring mainly
the affordable and affluent sections of the society and thwarting the dreams of
underprivileged social groups”, it said.
- NEET is not a fair or equitable method of admission since
it favoured the rich and elite sections of society, the preamble of the Bill to override NEET
said.
- The preamble added that the high-level committee making a
detailed study on NEET concluded that if it continued for a few more years, the
health care system of Tamil Nadu would be severely affected and there may not
be enough doctors for Primary Health Centres or state-run hospitals and that
the rural and urban poor may not be able to pursue medical courses.
- Admissions to medical courses are traceable to entry 25 of
List III, Schedule VII of the Constitution and therefore the state legislature
is competent to regulate the same, the Statement of Objects and Reasons (SoOAR)
of the Bill.
What was the immediate trigger?
On Sunday, hours before he was to appear for the National
Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for a third time, a 19-year-old youth belonging
to a village in Tamil Nadu died by suicide.
While the main opposition AIADMK blamed the DMK regime for
his death, Stalin targeted the Centre for being “obstinate” on the matter and
assured passing a Bill in the Assembly on September 13 to “permanently exempt”
Tamil Nadu from the ambit of NEET.
Source: The Indian Express
