Stalin ropes in 12 states in fight against NEET

Chennai: Chief Minister M.K. Stalin sought the cooperation of 12 non-BJP Chief Ministers in the country in putting up an united fight against NEET (National Eligibility and Entrance Test for medical admissions) to ensure that students from rural areas and marginalised sections of the society were not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions.

“We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of state governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our Constitution,” Stalin said in his letter to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Goa on Monday.

Enclosing the A.K. Rajan Committee report, which had requested for alternative admission procedures that would benefit all students, the feasibility of implementing such alternatives and the legal steps to be undertaken to implement such fair and equitable methods, Stalin said the introduction of NEET violated the Constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of state governments to decide on the method of admission to medical institutions founded, established and run by them.

A copy of the “Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021,”  passed by the state Assembly was also enclosed with the letter, which pointed out that NEET went against the spirit of federalism.

The Chief Minister has also instructed DMK MPs to directly handover the translated report of the Rajan Committee and brief the states of the efforts taken by the state government.