ARIYALUR: T Shanmugham, the father of late NEET aspirant Anitha, has written to the AK Rajan high-level committee looking into the medical entrance exam stating that the test does not uphold merit as claimed by its supporters, but leads to medical seats being allotted for money.
The high-level panel headed by Justice AK Rajan was formed by the DMK government to examine the pros and cons of the NEET in Tamil Nadu.
On June 17, the committee invited public opinion on the subject through e-mail or post. On Monday, Rajan revealed that the committee had received 25,000 letters from the public in four days.
Shanmugam, who resides in Kuzhumur near Sendurai in Ariyalur district, in his letter to the panel said that his daughter had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 in the Class 12 board exams which would have been enough to get a medical seat under the earlier system of medical admissions. However, she was denied the seat because of the introduction of the NEET, he said. Dejected at the turn of events, Anitha had ended her life. Her death sparked widespread protests in Tamil Nadu against the test.
Shanmugam chronicled the developments that followed the implementation of the NEET in 2017 and recalled how Anitha had fought against the test by meeting several political leaders across the State and by reaching out to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.
"If the exam was for those people with access to equal opportunities and uniform education, then we could have had the mental strength to accept the failure. But as that is not the case with NEET, we could not accept it," he wrote.
However, the father of another NEET victim in the Ariyalur district did not even know about the formation of the committee, let alone its call for public opinion.
Vignesh (19) from Ilanthakuzhi scored 1,006 out of 1,200 marks in the Class 12 exams. He had attempted the NEET twice and, with his preparations for the test hampered by the pandemic-induced lockdown, he ended his life before he was to take the test for the third time in 2020.
"We do not know about the committee and that it has asked for public opinion on NEET. My son studied well in Class 12 but he ended his life due to the NEET. The test shatters the dreams of many students. There should not be any more deaths. The government should find a solution to this," Vignesh's father N Viswanathan said.