NEET row: Stalin hits out at Governor, writes to President

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin urges President to grant assent to TN's NEET exemption Bill; government boycotts Governor's I-Day reception. CM cites suicides due to NEET, accuses Governor of favouring urban students, making unkind statements.

Against the backdrop of a Chennai boy ending his life over lower scores in NEET and the subsequent death by suicide by his father, Chief Minister M K Stalin on August 14 urged President Droupadi Murmu to grant assent at the earliest to the State’s NEET exemption Bill, which “was the collective will of the people of Tamil Nadu”.

Mr. Stalin, separately, announced his government’s decision to boycott Governor R. N. Ravi’s Independence Day ‘At Home’ reception at Raj Bhavan. However, by late evening, the Raj Bhavan said it has postponed the reception as the main lawns on its premises was flooded due to “incessant heavy rains” and there were predictions of thunderstorms and rain for Tuesday. The rescheduled date would be announced later. The Governor had recently said left to himself he would never ever grant assent to the NEET exemption Bill.

In his letter to President, Mr. Stalin said the Bill adopted was the “outcome of Legislative consensus, stemming from the collective will of the people of Tamil Nadu” and “each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but invaluable human lives to our society.” He pointed out the Bill was pending though though Tamil Nadu government had given clarifications to comments raised by various Union Ministries.

“This has caused immense anxiety and stress in the minds of the students and parents. As a result, there have been various sad incidents of students (or their parents) committing suicides, depressed by their failure to get an admission through NEET,” Mr. Stalin contended.

The Chief Minister argued, “NEET-based selection process favours urban students and those who can afford costly coaching classes and hence is inherently against the poor and underprivileged.” Tamil Nadu wanted undergraduate medical course admission to be done only through the class XII marks, “the outcome of school education rather than a separate entrance exam which is an unwanted additional stress on students.”

Referring to suicides, he felt, “These tragedies could have been definitely avoided if our Bill for exemption from NEET had been given assent.”