Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday held an all-party meeting on the NEET exam issue and said that the state would convene a special assembly session where it would pass another Bill for exemption of NEET exam and send it to Governor RN Ravi for his assent.
He alleged that the Governor didn’t perform his duty by procrastinating on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Bill passed by the state assembly. Addressing the all-party meeting at the Secretariat in Chennai, Stalin said, “The Governor had sat on the Bill for 142 days before returning it to the government. I met the governor in person on the NEET exam issue.”
“The Bill was adopted in the assembly keeping in mind the demand of 8 crore people seeking exemption from NEET exam. It was 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 Governor did not bother to send it to the President for his consent,” the Chief Minister said.
Stalin said that he had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi via a video conferencing meeting when he inaugurated 11 new medical colleges. “I appealed to PM in a virtual meeting when he inaugurated 11 new medical colleges. Now the Governor, after keeping our Bill on his desk for 143 days, sent it back,” said Stalin in the -party meet.
While speaking after the all-party meeting, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said, “Resolution is passed unanimously to send a new Bill again to the Tamil Nadu Governor. Again a new Bill will be passed in a special Assembly session to give exemption to the NEET exam for Tamil Nadu.”
He added, “We expect AIADMK will also participate in the special assembly session since this concerns the people.”
The BJP boycotted the all-party meeting today. BJP’s ally AIADMK also did not participate in all-party meeting. However, AIADMK has released a statement saying that AIADMK is against the NEET exam and will support the Tamil Nadu government on the exemption of NEET in the state.
According to the NEET Bill, students would get an exemption from the NEET exam for the next 10 years. Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi returned the NEET exemption Bill to the assembly Speaker, stating that is beyond the interest of students.
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