February 5, 2022 – On Saturday, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin-led all-party meet has resolved to send the NEET Exemption bill to the Governor.
The meeting chaired by the CM passed a resolution to convene a special assembly session to pass the Bill again, send it to the Governor and forward it to the Central Government to get the presidential nod.
The main opposition party in TN, the AIADMK, did not attend the meeting. However, it declared that it would support the legal initiatives to get the test scrapped in the state.
The CM said that the Governor kept the Bill with him for 143 days before returning it.
“It is the demand of eight crore people to give exemption from NEET exam, passed unanimously in the state Assembly. I ask you all – representatives of political parties – to give your valuable feedback in today’s all-party meeting,” the CM said.
He further added, “I met the Governor over the issue. A resolution for exemption was passed at the meeting. I made the appeal also to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual meeting when he opened 11 new medical colleges. Now Governor, after keeping our Bill on his desk for 143 days, sent it back.”
The Governor, RN Ravi, had returned the Bill stating that it was against students’ interests, especially the rural and economically poor students of the state.
The official press release from Raj Bhavan said that the Governor decided to return the Bill after a detailed study of the Bill and the report from the high-level committee formed by the state government.
The statement read, “The honourable Supreme Court in Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) has comprehensively examined the issue, specially from the social justice perspective, and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and is in furtherance of social justice.”
The Bill was passed by the Assembly initially in September 2021. All the parties except the BJP had supported the Bill, including the main Opposition AIADMK.
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