CHENNAI: After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to secure Presidential assent to two bills on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test passed in the Assembly, Tamil Nadu ministers expressed hopes of getting exemption from NEET this year.
Ministers D Jayakumar, C Ve Shanmugam, K P Anbalagan and C Vijaya Basker, and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai went to Delhi on Wednesday to meet Modi and also to discuss the matter with Union Health Minister J P Nadda and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and others.
Speaking to reporters at the airport here on Thursday, Jayakumar said they are hopeful that Tamil Nadu will get exemption from NEET. “Prime Minister Modi said he will see what can be done after consulting the ministries concerned,” he said.
“Now the bills have reached the Home Ministry. We spoke to Ravi Shankar Prasad for 20 minutes sharing our concerns. We hope to get exemption for at least a year,” said Jayakumar.
Earlier, speaking to the media in Delhi, Thambidurai, said: “The PM promised he will forward our memorandum to the concerned ministries, since the matter is in Supreme Court...We also met Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar. Since education is in the concurrent list, the bills passed by the State need Presidential assent.”
Meanwhile, PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss met President Pranab Mukherjee and discussed the NEET bills. The two bills are The Tamil Nadu Admissions to Post Graduate Courses in Medicine and Dentistry Bill, 2017 and the Tamil Nadu Admissions to MBBS and BDS Courses Bill, 2017.