Chennai: Exemption for Tamil Nadu students from Neet was just one step away on Wednesday with the Union law, health and human resources development ministries giving their nod for the ordinance submitted by the state government.
After Attorney General K.K. Venugopal gave his ‘No-objection certificate’ for the state-specific ordinance that seeks exemption from Neet for the 2017-2018 academic year, the law ministry cleared the draft and other two ministries followed suit.
“The ordinance will now have to be sent for the Presidential assent. The Presidential assent is expected on Thursday following which the ordinance will be sent to the state government,” a senior government official said.
Though the state government had earlier submitted a draft seeking Neet exemption for two years, the Centre did not give its commitment on the issue. However, the issue gained traction after Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the Centre was ready to consider exemption for a year.
Once Ordinance is promulgated, admissions into government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu would be done based on the marks obtained by candidates in their plus-2 exams.
In the draft ordinance, the state government has said since it cannot revise the syllabus overnight, it needed exemption from Neet for this academic year. The ordinance also talks of the efforts being taken by the Tamil Nadu Government to bring in historic changes in the school education sector to prepare students for competitive exams.
Once the President gives his assent, Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao would promulgate the ordinance. But the legal woes would not end there since students of CBSE stream have threatened to challenge the proposed ordinance in the court of law.
