CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday urged President Droupadi Murmu to accord early assent to the Bill to dispense with the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET). The Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021, has been pending presidential assent for more than a year.
The chief minister requested the president in person and handed over the letter in this regard while the latter was leaving for New Delhi after her visit to Chennai.
"Considering the fact that the NEET-based medical selection process is against students from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds, Tamil Nadu has opted for the MBBS selection process through the +2 marks. This process had served our State’s interests well in the past but had to be discontinued due to the Union Government’s introduction of NEET and subsequent changes in Union legislations," the chief minister said in his letter to the president.
Stalin recalled that to address the above issue, the ‘Tamil Nadu Admission to Under Graduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021’ (L.A Bill No.43 of 2021) was passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on September 13, 2021, based on the recommendations of the Committee headed by Justice AK Rajan and various discussions and sent to the Governor of Tamil Nadu on September 18, 2021. Since it was returned by the Governor after five months of delay, it was reintroduced in the Assembly on February 8, 2022, and was passed again after reconsideration and sent again to the Governor for reserving the same to Presidential assent.
The Governor of Tamil Nadu has forwarded the above Bill to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and is pending assent. All the clarifications sought on the Bill by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs based on the comments of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (on June 21, 2022), Department of Higher Education, MoE (August 26, 2022 and May 15, 2023) and Ministry of Ayush (January 13, 2023) have been provided expeditiously.
"Since there had been no progress after our replies, in my letter dated August 14, 2023, I highlighted the various adverse impacts due to this delay like the lost opportunities for the underprivileged students and many student suicides, and urged you to grant the assent without any further delay. The latest queries from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have also been replied. But unfortunately, the assent to our Bill has not been provided till now," the chief minister added.
Stalin reiterated that the inordinate delay in granting assent to our Bill has deprived medical admissions for many deserving students who could not afford costly coaching facilities and has effectively stalled the intent of the broad legislative, political, and social consensus in Tamil Nadu. "I solicit your kind and immediate intervention in this sensitive issue and urge you to accord the assent to the above Bill at the earliest," he added.