Chennai: As opposition parties in Tamil Nadu are gearing up for a massive human chain protests demanding exemption for Tamil Nadu from Neet, both the factions of the ruling AIADMK on Monday approached the Centre with the same demand.
On behalf of the ruling AIADMK (Amma), a group of state ministers accompanied by Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai called on home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi and took up the issue. Rebel AIADMK leader and former chief minister O. Panneerselvam later met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital on the same issue.
The state ministers met Singh and Jaitley days after some of their colleagues, including health minister C. Vijayabhaskar, met Modi and some other Union ministers on the Neet issue. The ministerial delegation had on July 20 submitted a memorandum to Modi, seeking presidential nod for two bills passed recently by the state assembly aimed at exempting the state from Neet and pending with the Centre.
The bills would pave the way for the continuation of undergraduate medical admissions on the basis of Class 12 marks, exempting Tamil Nadu from the ambit of Neet. Today, Singh ‘assured to favourably’ look into Tamil Nadu’s demand, an official release said. Jaitley told them that he would take up the matter with Union health minister J P Nadda, it added.
The state was represented by a delegation of six ministers, including P Thangamani (electricity), D Jayakumar (finance) and law minister C. V. Shanmugam.
Accompanied by senior party leaders, including some MPs of his camp, Panneerselvam also apprised the prime minister of the difficulties faced by locals at Kathiramangalam (Thanjavur) and Neduvasal (Pudukottai) due to hydrocarbon projects there, a release from the rival faction said.
