Was Tamil Nadu's NEET Ordinance not even read by Union Health Ministry?

RTI reveals, the ministry had not even received the Ordinance, much less discussed it, before prodding Venugopal to reconsider his stand.

MADURAI: When Attorney General KK Venugopal reversed his own position and trashed Tamil Nadu’s NEET exemption Ordinance, he did so after being asked to take a relook by the Union Health Ministry, which provided him what was reported as additional facts and past judgments of the apex court.

However, as information obtained under RTI reveals, the ministry had not even received the Ordinance, much less discussed it, before prodding Venugopal to reconsider his stand.

To put this in perspective, the information that Venugopal had reversed his stand appeared in the media on August 21. The next day, the apex court made NEET mandatory, for even TN. However, according to its own admission, the Health Ministry received a copy of the Ordinance from the Home Ministry only on August 23.

“There was no meeting held in this regard,” said the chief public information officer of the Union Health Ministry, in reply to request from this correspondent under RTI, seeking minutes of the meeting, if any. “It is painful to know that the ministry was adamant about rejecting the Ordinance without even holding a discussion,” said a senior health department official here, who spent long hours in pursuit of the sanction from the Centre.

After TN forwarded the copy of the Ordinance to the Union Home Ministry on August 14 seeking sanction to proceed, it was referred to the HRD and law ministries. When the latter sought his opinion, Venugopal had given positive response, which buoyed the mood back in Tamil Nadu. However, when it was the turn of Health Ministry, it reportedly asked the A-G to reconsider the position. “The ministry was reluctant to approve the Ordinance even after the two other ministries had cleared it,” said the TN official.

The State submitted the Ordinance only after the Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre would cooperate, the official pointed out. “When an Ordinance is unanimously adopted by a State, it should be respected by the ministries concerned at the Centre,” he added.