Stalin meets Murmu seeking to expedite assent for NEET exemption Bill

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday personally urged President Draupadi Murmu to intervene and accord assent to the Bill seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET UG medical admission at the earliest.

Drawing the President's attention to the inordinate delay in granting assent to the Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021, which has been pending for Presidential assent for over a year, CM Stalin said the inordinate delay in assenting the Bill has deprived medical admissions for many deserving students who could not afford costly coaching facilities and has effectively stalled the intent of the broad legislative, political and social consensus in Tamil Nadu.

"I, therefore, solicit your kind and immediate intervention in this sensitive issue and urge you to accord the assent to the above Bill at the earliest, " added the CM, in his representation made with the President at the city airport before the first lady returned to the national capital.

Reiterating that NEET based medical selection process was against the students from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds, the CM said that the clarifications sought on the Bill by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs based on the comments of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (on 21.06.2022), Department of Higher Education, MoE (26.08.2022 and 15.05.2023) and Ministry of Ayush (13.01.2023) have been provided expeditiously.

Citing the lack of progress on the Bill after the state's replies, the CM referred to his August 14 dated letter to her highlighting the various adverse impacts of the delay and said that the "latest queries from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have also been replied, but unfortunately, the assent to our Bill has not been provided till now."