TIRUNELVELI: Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Saturday said that the Tamil Nadu Siddha Medical University bill, passed by the Assembly to establish a university for Siddha medicine, has been returned by Governor RN Ravi with suggestions for making four changes. The governor had reserved the bill for the consideration of the President nearly two years ago in November 2023. Subramanian, addressing the media in Tirunelveli, said the bill was returned on Thursday.
Sources said the President seems to have invoked powers under Article 201 to direct the governor to return the bill to the legislature. Subramanian said that the communication received by the health secretary on Thursday has been shared with the law department. He said that, as per the directions of Chief Minister MK Stalin, the state will make efforts to table and pass the bill with the changes and send it for governor’s assent again.
The returning of the bill assumed significance since the Supreme Court is currently hearing the Presidential Reference, seeking clarity on the landmark judgment passed by a two-judge bench of the court, which defined timelines for President and Governors to act on bills passed by state legislatures while granting “deemed assent” to 10 bills that were pending with the TN governor.
‘Siddha univ bill returned by governor 3 or 4 times’
The Siddha university bill and another bill to amend the Act governing the University of Madras were, however, not part of those 10 bills as they had been reserved for the President.
After the plan to set up a university for Siddha was announced by the government in August 2021, the Siddha Bill was passed by the Assembly in April 2022, after obtaining approval from the governor to table the bill. The governor, who received the bill for assent subsequently, sought clarifications raising concerns that the bill contradicted the provisions of National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020, and National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020.
Both the health and law departments responded to him with detailed explanations in August-September 2022, the governor reserved the Bill for the President a year later when the state had moved the Supreme Court in this regard.
Subramanian on Thursday said the government wanted to set up the university after suggestions from well-known Siddha practitioners like Ku Sivaraman and Kannan. He said the governor had already sent back the bill “three or four times” and the government responded with clarifications every time.
He also said that Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru would take up the demand for 25 acres of land for the expansion of the Government Siddha Medical College in Palayamkottai with the CM and take appropriate steps, adding that the college had just celebrated its diamond jubilee.
The minister further informed the media that with 493 brain-dead people donating their organs, Tamil Nadu had secured the first position at the national level. “Within a month, the state government will decide on constructing a wall of honour in all 36 government medical college hospitals to inscribe the names of organ donors and honour them,” he said.
He earlier inaugurated a Rs 5 crore modern full-body checkup centre at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital in the presence of Nehru.