Will BJP revoke Emergency decision and shift education from State to Concurrent List, asks TN CM Stalin

Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin questions BJP on education policy during Emergency, expands breakfast scheme for rural students.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on July 15 questioned whether the BJP-led Union government would come forward to revoke the decision taken during the Emergency shifting the subject of ‘education’ from the State List to the Concurrent List.

Taking a dig at the BJP for having been persistently discussing the Emergency imposed during the erstwhile Congress government in the Centre, Mr. Stalin asked “Will the Union government come forward to shift education from the Concurrent List to the State List by revoking the decision taken during the Emergency?”

Mr. Stalin was speaking at the launch of the expansion of the Tamil Nadu government’s flagship Chief Minister’s breakfast scheme at St. Anne’s Primary School at Keezhacheri in Tiruvallur district. The expansion is set to benefit over 2.23 lakh children studying in 3,995 State-aided schools located in rural areas across the State.

At present, over 18.50 lakh students studying in Classes I to V in 30,992 State-run schools have been benefitting from the CM’s breakfast scheme. In a social media post, Mr. Stalin said he honoured the late Congress leader and former CM K. Kamaraj by launching the expansion of the CM’s breakfast scheme on the occasion of the late leader’s birth anniversary.

Mr. Stalin reiterated TN government’s position strongly opposing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions and recalled the legal steps being taken by the State government. As for as the Dravidian model of governance is concerned, there should be no obstacles posing children from Tamil Nadu over their education, he maintained.

“Be it hunger or NEET or the New Education Policy of the Union government, our primary objective is to break such obstacles,” Mr. Stalin asserted. Recalling criticism over the DMK’s opposition to the NEET initially, Mr. Stalin referred to recent observations of the Supreme Court over the NEET. “Even the entire country is opposing NEET in the path led by Tamil Nadu.”

The Chief Minister also flagged off 10 new buses for the State transport corporations. Tiruvallur MP Sasikanth Senthil, legislators V.G. Raajendran, S. Chandran and S. Inigo Irudayaraj, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and senior officials participated.