NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, AUG 20
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday assured all efforts to ensure NEET exemption for Tamil Nadu, as his son and cabinet minister Udhayanidhi led the party’s state-wide hunger strike demanding the abolition of the test. The DMK will not stop till Tamil Nadu got exemption from the central qualifying test, Stalin said.
The CM’s remarks at a wedding coincided with his party’s agitation seeking to do away with the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test.
- DMK’s state-wide hunger strike demanding abolition of NEET underway in Tamil Nadu
- A collage of medical aspirants who allegedly died of suicide over NEET, including S Anita of Ariyalur was put on display at the stage here and floral tributes paid to them
- Only the President has the power, not the governor; he only has the job of a postman
Stalin also took a swipe at TN Governor RN Ravi for his recent remarks that he would never sign in favour of the state’s anti-NEET bill, saying the matter was now with the President and that the Governor’s job was only that of a “postman,” who has to send to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan matters taken up by the state Assembly.
In his address at the wedding, Stalin reiterated that his party has been opposing NEET ever since it was brought. The earlier bill adopted by the Assembly during the AIADMK regime was returned and the then ruling party did not reveal it, even when Assembly was on, he said. That bill subsequently lapsed, Stalin said, adding his party, ahead of the 2021 elections promised to wholeheartedly strive for a NEET ban.
The bill seeking exemption for TN was adopted twice after the DMK came to power and was “finally sent for Presidential assent after much struggle.” He alleged that Ravi kept the bill at Raj Bhavan and sent it to the President only after the government strongly pressed for it.
“The President should decide on the bill on the basis of Centre’s advice. Only the President has the power, not the governor; he only has the job of a postman. He has to send what we sent,” he said, referring to Ravi’s recent remarks at an interaction that he would never give assent to the state’s anti-NEET bill.
State Minister and the party’s Youth Wing chief Udhayanidhi Stalin, was joined here by senior DMK leaders and cabinet ministers– Duraimurugan, Ma Subramanian and PK Sekar Babu, party MPs, MLAs and Chennai Mayor Priya R at the start of the protest in Valluvar Kottam here.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), minister Udhayanidhi condemned the Centre for not exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET examination, which he claimed is the reason behind the deaths of young medical aspirants, who died by suicide in the state allegedly over NEET.
The Tamil Nadu ministers began a hunger strike after paying floral tributes to the NEET aspirants who allegedly died by suicide in the state.
A collage of medical aspirants who allegedly died of suicide over NEET, including S Anita of Ariyalur was put on display at the stage here and floral tributes paid to them.
Duraimurugan said NEET was against the welfare of students and that the DMK has been opposing it for long.
Despite repeated pleas, the Centre was not heeding TN’s request against NEET, Duraimurugan said.
Medical education infra best in the country
In India, there are around 704 medical colleges, of which 74 are in the State. There are over 1.07 lakh MBBS and 67,802 PG medical seats in India. Tamil Nadu has the second highest number of 11,600 MBBS seats and third highest 5,082 PG medical seats. This shows the strength of the medical infrastructure in the State.
Tamil Nadu had 49 medical colleges in 2017 with 6,850 MBBS seats, which increased to 71 colleges in 2022 with 10,825 seats. For PG medical, the State had 2,960 seats in 2017, which increased to 4,830 by 2022. Tamil Nadu also has the highest number of 8 medical colleges in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (medical category), with Christian Medical College Vellore being third in the country, after All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh.
