Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to exempt students from the state from appearing for Neet and to continue the single-window counselling system for admission into MBBS and BDS courses.
The bill, which makes a state-specific amendment to the Indian Medical Council Act, 2016 was introduced in the Assembly on Tuesday and was passed after a debate.
During the debate, health minister C. Vijayabhaskar said late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa was the “only leader” to have opposed introduction of Neet for admission into medical colleges and consistently fought for its abolition. “I also reject the DMK’s charge that the bill was brought due to their pressure.
During the 2016 poll campaign, our late Amma had announced that she will certainly do away with the Neet and even go the extent of bringing a bill,” he said.
As DMK MLA Ponmudi said the Act needs the concurrence of the President of India since it has brought an amendment to a central law, chief minister O. Panneerselvam said due process and procedure will be followed.
The state government said the bulk of the students who would appear for the uniform entrance examination from Tamil Nadu come from rural areas and facilities for them to access coaching classes are not available due to paucity of funds and economic conditions in the areas.
The syllabus, methodology and the content of the uniform entrance examination (Neet) is based on the syllabus prescribed for the CBSE which is different from that prescribed by the board of higher secondary examination in Tamil Nadu, the government noted.
