Chennai: Providing the required ammunition to the DMK government in its resolve to get exemption from NEET, the high-level committee headed by Justice AK Rajan, constituted to study the impact of national-level entrance test for medical admissions, has said NEET has adversely affected students from rural areas and the marginalised communities. In its report, the panel report is said to have recommended dispensing with NEET altogether.
The panel submitted its 165-page report to Chief Minister MK Stalin at the secretariat on Wednesday, a day after a division bench of Madras High Court dismissed a PIL challenging the setting up of the committee. Now, the state government is free to pursue further course of action as the DMK had pledged in its election manifesto to dismantle NEET.
Interestingly, it also comes in the backdrop of the National Testing Agency announcing the holding of NEET.
Explaining the findings of the panel, Justice Rajan told the media that an overwhelming majority from among the 86,342 respondents had opposed NEET. “From social justice to economic and legal issues, opposition is on various counts,” he maintained adding that the report was a comprehensive and detailed one.
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Later, talking to ETV Bharat, he said “The report would enable the government to take a policy decision on NEET besides providing the necessary tools to carry out suitable legal measures to have it repealed. It will be helpful to the government in all aspects. Now, it is for the government to proceed further.”
Sources close to the panel said it had recommended dispensing with NEET for Tamil Nadu and if necessary, the state could hold its own entrance test, though advocating reverting to the earlier system of admissions based on Board exam results. Further, available data pertaining to the inability of students from government schools in both the rural and urban areas besides the advantage enjoyed by the well to do sections has been provided in the report.
The state government, sources said is all set to get a resolution passed in the assembly seeking exemption from NEET. It could possibly be carried out during the Budget session and sent to the President for his assent. Notwithstanding this, the state might further take up necessary legal initiatives, based on the report.
With this, Stalin could be seen as taking a lead among the states engaged in securing autonomy in the domain of education, which is in the concurrent list of the Constitution. Also, this is in tune with the DMK's core policy of state autonomy for which the Dravidian major has been raising its voice since its inception.
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Earlier on Tuesday, in a shot in the arm for the DMK government, Madras High Court had dismissed a PIL by BJP state general secretary Karu Nagarajan seeking to quash the setting up of the panel. A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said the “Commission may come up with some material that the state government may use to persuade the Union to search for an alternative or modify the process to make it more inclusive for students belonging to the socially backward and economically weaker sections to participate therein with a better chance of success.”
On NEET, both the ruling DMK and the principal opposition AIADMK are on the same page. The BJP remains the lone dissenting voice. The next move of Chief Minister Stalin on this issue will be keenly watched as it has turned out to be turf war between the State and the Union Government.
