TN NEET ban demand: It is not govt decision, says Pradhan

Amid Tamil Nadu's prolonged demand to ban the NEET entrance examination in the state, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that any decision regarding this would not be based on the government.

Tamil Nadu has been demanding the elimination of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam from the state and for this, they have also sent a bill to the Central government for getting the Presidential assent. Now, while his visit to Chennai, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that any decision regarding the NEET exam would not be made based on the government.

"The NEET exam is conducted based on the outcome of the Supreme Court of India and is not a government decision. NEET exam would create a level ground for medical aspirants," he said, as reported by MSN.

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The NEET entrance exam was constituted in 2013 as the single national level examination. Despite strong opposition from various states against a common medical entrance exam, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the conduction of the NEET Exam.

Tamil Nadu also passed a bill in the state cabinet to eliminate the exam from the state and sent for Presidential assent. Based on a committee's report, the Chief Minister MK Stalin-led government opines that NEET favours candidates from affluent families and is not good for aspirants from poor families hence as per the state government this leads to the suicides of many poor aspirants in Tamil Nadu every year. The state wants to implement that the main criterion for admissions into medical colleges of the state would change to Class 12th result as opposed to the marks scored in the NEET Exam.

The state has been demanding to eliminate the NEET entrance examination since 2021. The anti-NEET bill was passed for the first time in September 2021 but was later returned on January 3, 2022, by Governor R.N. Ravi as he claimed the anti-NEET bill would go against the interest of the students. However, the bill was passed for the second time on February 8, 2022, and the bill has been sent to the President of India as further assent.

Read more:

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• TN NEET Counselling 2022: MBBS, BDS applications 2022 to be available after NTA sends list