Exemption from NEET: Tamil Nadu delegation meets Modi, Union Ministers

Chennai: A delegation of Tamil Nadu Ministers on Thursday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some of his cabinet colleagues to press for exempting the State from NEET.

A memorandum was submitted to Modi by the delegation seeking Presidential nod for two Bills passed recently by the state assembly and now pending with the Centre.

The bills pave the way for continuation of UG medical admissions on the basis of Plus Two marks exempting Tamil Nadu from the ambit of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Senior AIADMK (Amma) leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai led the ministers.

An official release here said Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Finance Minister D Jayakumar, Electricity Minister P Thangamani, Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam and Higher Education Minister K P Anbazhagan met Modi and Union Ministers for Health and HRD JP Nadda and Prakash Javadekar respectively.

The delegation also called on Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the NEET issue, the release said.

Both the ruling AIADMK (Amma) and main opposition DMK are opposed to NEET in Tamil Nadu maintaining that it would affect the interests of State students both from villages and the urban poor.

DMK and other opposition parties have been targeting the AIADMK (Amma) regime on NEET claiming that the interests of students were compromised by not getting exemption from it.

Vijayabaskar had days ago told the Assembly that he would visit Delhi to persuade the Centre to grant nod for the pending Bills.