NEET Triggers Yet Another Suicide In TN
The girl, Shruthilaya, had passed her Plus Two examination in 2023 and had been preparing for NEET by attending private coaching classes for the past four years
Chennai: Yet another suicide by a 21-year medical college aspirant at Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district on Friday night since her name did not appear in the list of selected candidates after counselling sent shockwaves all over the State, reviving the demand for the cancellation of NEET by various political parties.
The girl, Shruthilaya, had passed her Plus Two examination in 2023 and had been preparing for NEET by attending private coaching classes for the past four years. This year, after getting a decent score in NEET, she attended the counselling for medical college admissions and was hopeful of getting selected to one of the medical colleges.
When her name did not figure in the list of selected candidates, he hanged herself inside a building in her compound. Since she left home at around 8.30 pm on Friday telling the parents – her father, Arikrishnan, worked for a private company – that she was going to meet a friend and did not return for a long time, the family started calling up her friends.
Their search for the girl in various places ended in the building used as a storeroom in her house compound. Since the death caused widespread grief in the locality, police rushed to the spot and sent the body for postmortem.
The tragedy revived discussions on the relevance of NEET with political leaders immediately calling for its ban. TNCC president Manickam Tagore said NEET had failed to infuse confidence among the younger generation over its fair conduct.
He also pointed out that while only 13,999 medical seats were available in the State, 61,306 students cleared NEET in 2026. The number of students who passed the examination in 2026 was a decline of 19.5 percent from the earlier year’s 76,181 passes, he said.
Blaming the system, which he accused of snatching young lives, Tagore wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi to respect the sentiments of Tamil Nadu and abolish NEET completely. No more students’ lives should be lost due to NEET’s atrocities, he said.
Former TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai said the Union BJP government was continuing with NEET despite the State Assembly passing several resolutions demanding its scrapping by ignoring the unified voice of the people of the State.