On Friday, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a government resolution introduced by Chief Minister MK Stalin, urging the Government of India to immediately grant assent to the NEET Exemption Bill, which has been pending with the President’s office since 2022. All parties, including the PMK, an ally of the BJP, supported the resolution, except for the BJP MLAs who opposed it and staged a walkout.
In moving the resolution, Chief Minister Stalin outlined the necessity of exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET and highlighted recent irregularities in the administration of the exam. He argued that the NEET system severely impacts the medical education opportunities of poor rural students, renders schooling redundant, and infringes upon the rights of state governments to admit students to their own medical colleges.
"The NEET examination system, which severely affects the medical education opportunities of poor rural students, makes schooling redundant and deprives the rights of the state governments to admit students in its government medical colleges, should be abolished," the resolution stated.
The resolution further stressed that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously urges the Union Government to immediately provide its assent to the NEET Exemption Bill, which was unanimously passed by this legislative Assembly. The bill aims to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET and to base medical admissions on the marks obtained by students in their class 12th standard.
Additionally, the resolution called on the Government of India to make necessary amendments to the National Medical Commission Act, advocating for the scrapping of the NEET system at the national level in light of the repeated irregularities in its examinations.
